Work related expenses and personal error

Horlock

This is almost certainly not the right place to ask this question, but I really wasn't sure which was the best forum.

Does anyone know an official line for whether you can claim expenses which have been caused by your own personal error.

An illustration if your employer sends you to the wrong office and you go you could claim travel expenses, but if your employer sends you to the right office but you type the wrong postcode into your sat nav.

Similarly, if you get lost/ miss a junction on the motorway and your journey has a few extra miles on it. The question is
(a) can you legally submit an expenses claim that includes the extra miles
(b) can you submit a "business expense" on your tax return for the extra miles

I know we are only talking miniscule amounts of money here, but the question relates to principle.

The expense has been incurred as a direct result of the buisness - ie business expense, however, it has been caused as a direct result of your personal mistake. The company did not require you to drive an extra junction on the motorway (you could have come off at the right junction), however, without the buisness requiring you to attend the conference you would not have missed the junction.

Just curious

Andy_L

There is no employment law based legal requirement for an employer to pay any expenses. Any payment comes down to contract law & what it says in your employment contract/staff handbook etc.

takman

Horlock wrote: »

This is almost certainly not the right place to ask this question, but I really wasn't sure which was the best forum.

Does anyone know an official line for whether you can claim expenses which have been caused by your own personal error.

An illustration if your employer sends you to the wrong office and you go you could claim travel expenses, but if your employer sends you to the right office but you type the wrong postcode into your sat nav.

Similarly, if you get lost/ miss a junction on the motorway and your journey has a few extra miles on it. The question is
(a) can you legally submit an expenses claim that includes the extra miles
(b) can you submit a "business expense" on your tax return for the extra miles

I know we are only talking miniscule amounts of money here, but the question relates to principle.

The expense has been incurred as a direct result of the buisness - ie business expense, however, it has been caused as a direct result of your personal mistake. The company did not require you to drive an extra junction on the motorway (you could have come off at the right junction), however, without the buisness requiring you to attend the conference you would not have missed the junction.

Just curious

Well from a legal point of view i don't know of any reason you couldn't drive 300 miles to a place that is 5 miles away and submit it as an expense claim to your employer or on your tax return. Your employer probably would question the claim and you would probably face disciplinary action but there is no legal problem.

If you miss a motorway junction or go somewhere within a few miles of where you should be then any reasonable employer should accept you made a one off mistake.
If you end up 10's of miles away from where you should be because of typing in the wrong postcode then that's less acceptable because you should at least look at your route and have an idea of where your going before you leave.

gettingtheresometime

I can only speak personally but if I made an error (whether that be putting in the wrong postcode or missing a junction) I'd suck it up and put it down to experience.

In those circumstances I'd note the journey distance on the return home & just double it

MacMickster

I suspect that a respected and valued long-serving employee will get a different reaction from their employer if they take a wrong turn and inadvertently clock up an extra 20 miles as a one-off, as opposed to a new starter who has done it twice in their first year of employment.

That said, I suspect that the long-serving employee would almost certainly do the same as gettingtheresometime (and me) and fail to claim the extra mileage. They will already have been paid for the time wasted by taking the wrong turn and possibly ticked off a client by arriving late. To claim mileage on top of that is really demonstrating a sense of entitlement that may give the employer a particularly unfavourable and lasting impression of the employee. That £10 expenses claim could subsequently cost a promotion, pay rise or even a job.

getmore4less

This probably falls into pick your battles.

A mileage claim too much higher than google maps that it gets questioned is a conversation you don't need.

unforeseen

Most employers that I have worked for have allowed a 10% error between distance claimed and the distance as calculated using Google maps/AA/Autoroute or whatever method they use. To allow for road closures etc.

Any more than that then it's tough

TELLIT01

I would suggest that missing a junction and putting the wrong location into your sat nav are likely to be viewed very differently. There is the possibility that missing the junction was caused by factors outside the driver's control. Putting the wrong location into the sat nav is entirely the fault of the driver. If the error only adds a few miles then it unlikely that the employer will be bothered. If you've driven 50 miles in the wrong direction I would think it unlikely they will, or should, pay.

Undervalued

One of the many factors used to decide if somebody is a genuine employee is who pays for mistakes.
Normally as an employee if you mess a job up, break something or waste materials etc then the employer meets the cost. Obviously if it is serious or you do it regularly then they may take disciplinary action but that is another matter.

So, if you mess up your journey planning the same should normally apply. However it is possible to have contractual clauses making an employee responsible for the cost of certain errors so you would need to check you contract etc.

That said, is it really worth arguing about?

Malthusian

I know we are only talking miniscule amounts of money here, but the question relates to principle.

Well if it's a miniscule amount of money you should quite obviously show that you are a principled person (and a loyal employee) by only claiming for the amount of mileage it should have taken.

TBagpuss

It would depend on the company policy regarding expenses.

Most I've sen have something about being paid for the shortest route between the relevant points, and often specify that if you are going direct to/from home that you deduct the amount fo your normal commute, or that you get the lower of the actual mileage, or the distance from the office to the destination.

So you'd get the 'google maps / aa routefinder' mileage, not the actual distance travelled.
A reasonable employer would reimburse the higher mileage if it was out of your control - for instance if you were sent on a diversion due to road closures.

Legally, all an employer has to pay is what they've agreed, in your contract of employment, to pay.