Claiming tax relief for mileage incurred as part of job

ForestPCT

My daughter has been employed for a year by Mitie as a "Support Officer" involved with COVID mobile testing sites.  She is required to travel to various locations up to 60-70 miles from her home to set up and run temporary COVID testing stations. She does not have a permanent base and is instead given a daily roster of locations she has to drive to.  She is not provided with any financial assistance by Mitie to cover these travel costs.  There are presumably several hundred people around the country in a similar situation.  She has tried to claim tax relief (@45p/mile) for this using the gov.uk on-line form but her claim has initially been rejected.  The reasons given were that the claim doesn't meet the conditions of either (i) the travel must be an expense necessarily incurred whilst travelling in the performance of their duties or (ii) travel for the necessary attendance of a temporary workplace, excluding ordinary commuting and private travel.  She has been told that if she does believe her claim does meet one of these conditions, she needs to provide more information which she plans to do.

Can anyone provide advice on how to successfully pursue the claim?

Thanks   

Jeremy535897

Provide whatever the information is that they are asking for. It seems a straightforward case.

Andy_L

What does her contract say about her place of work? If it defines it as an area, eg "All covid test stations within the county of Blankshire" then, AIUI, she cannot claim because the area defined is classed as her permanent workplace rather than each site being a temporary workplace

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/employment-income-manual/eim32190

Jeremy535897

EIM 32190 has, I think, to be treated with caution. It is not law. After all, every contract of employment effectively has a deemed term in it that you work somewhere on planet Earth. On that basis, no travel expenses would ever be allowed.

EIM 32191 goes into a bit more detail:
https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/employment-income-manual/eim32191

The examples focus more on cases where somebody regularly goes into a few offices (the employer's premises) rather than one single office. 

Grumpy_chap

Jeremy535897 said:

every contract of employment effectively has a deemed term in it that you work somewhere on planet Earth. On that basis, no travel expenses would ever be allowed.

Going to work here would be a good mileage claim, though:
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html 

Jeremy535897

Grumpy_chap said:

Jeremy535897 said:

every contract of employment effectively has a deemed term in it that you work somewhere on planet Earth. On that basis, no travel expenses would ever be allowed.

Going to work here would be a good mileage claim, though:
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html 

I think it would be a company vehicle.

Grumpy_chap

Jeremy535897 said:

Grumpy_chap said:

Jeremy535897 said:

every contract of employment effectively has a deemed term in it that you work somewhere on planet Earth. On that basis, no travel expenses would ever be allowed.

Going to work here would be a good mileage claim, though:
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html 

I think it would be a company vehicle.

Hmmmm, could be a high BIK charge, unless an EV....

Maybe an exception for being a "pool" vehicle and no private use.

MattMattMattUK

Grumpy_chap said:

Jeremy535897 said:

Grumpy_chap said:

Jeremy535897 said:

every contract of employment effectively has a deemed term in it that you work somewhere on planet Earth. On that basis, no travel expenses would ever be allowed.

Going to work here would be a good mileage claim, though:
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html 

I think it would be a company vehicle.

Hmmmm, could be a high BIK charge, unless an EV....

Maybe an exception for being a "pool" vehicle and no private use.

Unfortunately the fuel consumption would make it somewhat uneconomical, using around 520,000 litres of LOX and Kerosene to travel the 410km to orbit, you are looking at around 1,268 litres per KM or 0.001855 MPG. Whilst kerosene is only around £0.65 per litre, LOX is around £4.00 and the ratio is around 2.5L of LOX to Kerosene...