Travel expenses

andr3s

Hi all,
looking for some advice. I work from home; this is spelled in my contract, where the place of work is down as my home address in London. 

About once per month, I need to go to the company headquarters, for meetings; I typically go for 3 days. My company doesn't pay for my travel expenses (I knew this in advance when I joined the company). 

Can I claim Tax relief for mileage/train (depending on the trip), hotel and meals while I'm at the company headquarters? I spend about 300/trip. 

Thanks in advance!

Jeremy535897

It may be possible to argue that the company HQ is a temporary workplace, and claim travel expenses. See:
https://www.litrg.org.uk/tax-guides/employment/employment-benefits-and-expenses/what-travel-expenses-can-i-claim

Sandtree

How long have you been doing it? How long will you continue doing it?

A person may have more than one permanent place of work and if it is deemed that both home and HO are your places of work you cannot claim tax relief on travel costs and any repayment by your employer would be a taxable benefit. Have you clarified with your employer why they dont reimburse it? 

Pennywise

It's a very grey area.  A "temporary" workplace (travelling expenses allowed) can become a "permanent" workplace (travel expenses not allowed) if it becomes habitual, i.e. you regularly go to the same place at/around the same time/same frequency, etc.

So, I'd work along the lines of if you're going to the office pretty randomly, sometimes a single day (preferable different days of the week), sometimes 3 days, sometimes a gap of a month between visits, sometimes a gap of 2 months between visits, you'd probably be ok with claiming it as a "temporary" allowable travel claim.

But, if, say, you tend to go last Friday of the month, or second Monday of the month, or every 4 weeks, or something more "habitual", then it could be regarded as a "permanent" pattern and not allowable.

So best thing is to mix it up as much as possible.