Self-employed travelling allowance

Robert82

Hi,

I'm a confused self-employed and hope you can help me.
I live in Bournemouth (UK) and work in Southampton 3 days a week, travelling by train. On Monday only, I work both in Southampton and in Bournemouth.

My question is, can I claim back the price of the train ticket between Bournemouth and Southampton as allowance? I've been told that it's allowed when travelling from two working places, but I don't know the details. For example, could I claim the price of all the 3 weekly tickets, or is it only that of the ticket I buy on Mondays when I work in both towns? Would I need a VAT receipt every week from the station's office, or is a copy of the ticket enough?

Thank you very much!!
Robert

PlutoinCapricorn

You can claim all travel expenses, provided that the journey is for business purposes.

The two different places of work applies to employees not the self-employed.

You need evidence that you have paid for the tickets: could you get receipts?

Robert82

Thank you for your quick reply!!

Yes, the journey is for business purpose only. I have to ask the station's office for receipts, hopefully since I still have the tickets I can give them the right date and evidence.

PlutoinCapricorn

One thing that comes to mind is that regular journeys to the same place over a period of time might look like something that should be a job. Ideally, self employed people should have irregular payments from a variety of clients, HMRC are suspicious of anything that looks like a regular committment.

Robert82

Uhm, I see what you mean, but hopefully it should be alright. The journey is to always go at the same place, but the contract I have there is specifically of self-employed type, for example I can take as many holidays as I want and they are not paid, I carry my own equipment etc.
Thanks again for the advice though!

PlutoinCapricorn

If you rented an office for your business, I think that you could not claim the cost of travelling between home and your own place of business. But claiming for travel to a client's office is ok.

Robert82

It's kind of in between these two. I work at someone else's office, so it's not my own office nor the client's. The working conditions are definitely self-employed, I just double-checked at HRMC, but it's only for my own decision that I travel instead of living in Southampton. I think this is why the accountant I asked to said I could only claim the expenses if I had another job in Bournemouth which justifies the travelling.

PlutoinCapricorn

I have not heard of a case like this before! It is not straightforward. Many self employed people have their home address as their main place of work, thus journeys to their clients' offices are legitimate expenses.

You can always contact HMRC directly to get their opinion.

Robert82

Ok, I'll give it a try. Thanks anyway for your help!