income vat tax confusion / help needed

pjclar02

Essentially, OP, if you are paid a "round sum" expense allowance then this will be taxable as income through payroll. However, if you are reimbursed for business costs incurred wholly, exclusively and necessarily for the purposes of your employment then the reimbursement will not be taxable.

I think this is the avenue you need to be exploring - whether any of the costs incurred are genuine allowable expenses, and if they are get the employer to reimburse them to you via the company expense policy to ensure you are not paying tax on the income.

It seems the key issue is the travel and accommodation - so the first step would be to establish whether that place of work is a permanent workplace. If so, you will not be able to claim travel costs to and from it, as this would be considered ordinary commuting.