Business mileage

weddingringman

My old company allowed us to claim business mileage from our home address to the meeting/site and return. When you read the HMRC document it goes further and says you can even potentially pop into your place of work en-route, and as long as you do not do anything substantive then the WHOLE trip equates to business mileage you can claim back. 

My new company however is saying you must deduct your daily commute to work from any claims - even when you don’t go to your main office!! Can they take this position?

I didn’t sign a contract that says I owe them my miles for a theoretical commute I will not always make. 

Andy_L

An employer can have more or less generous rules for milage claims than the HMRC rules.
If they are more generous then you will owe the taxman, less generous then you can get a tax rebate

Dazed_and_C0nfused

I think you are getting mixed up between what your company can pay - which is their decision - and what you can claim tax relief on* from HMRC for business mileage using your own vehicle.

*assuming your company pays less than the maximum tax free amounts of 45p/25p/mile.

Grumpy_chap

For the OP, the answer to the question is, yes, the company can do that.
I would suggest a clarification though whether the commute mileage has to be deducted irrespective of direction of travel.

Say an individual lived in Gloucester and normally commuted to Cheltenham. 
A business trip to Worcester goes past Cheltenham, so deducting the normal commute mileage is entirely reasonable.
A business trip to Bristol goes in entirely the opposite direction, so the employer is already saving by not covering the distance from office to employee's home.  Should they also save again?