Business mileage is always less commute miles. Company policy. Help.

EngineerTom

Hello,
I'm looking for some advice on the legality of the below. I'm aware of HMRC guidance and the 10 mile rule and substantially different journeys. My question is more on is this legal?

My wife works for the NHS in the community (travels to patients) and the hospital's policy on business mileage is that in a day your commute mileage to the office must be taken away from the business mileage to see a patient if you start from home.

Example. office is 20 miles west of home and you drive 30 miles east from home to see a patient. = 30b-20c = 10 miles paid. Or commute to the office and it would be 50 miles paid.

Is this legal? Staff have kicked off about this and management have not looked into changing policy. Hoping someone could advise if there's recourse on this and what it should be. HMRC guidance is one thing.
Perhaps it's tax relief on the mileage not paid. NHS staff are paid peanuts and this is just another example of them getting shafted, probably my management not understanding mileage.

Many thanks in advance.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

I have no idea if it's legal but I suspect the NHS view will be that they are happy to reimburse something for the additional mileage over and above the mileage that would otherwise have been done.

Which is a totally different rule to whether tax relief can be claimed.

But if course tax relief is far less beneficial than being paid by the employer, for most people even just being paid 10p/mile would be better than having to claim tax relief on the whole 45p from HMRC.

LightFlare

Totally legal and logical.

My partner works for a Uni and they have exactly the same system

baser999

I used to work for NHS and our policy was the same - excess mileage over daily commute

Andy_L

An employer can pay as much or as little as they like for mileage and impose whatever conditions they like on what miles can/can't be complained

The only implications are
1. if they pay more or less than HMRCs numbers you pay tax on the excess or claim the tax back on an under payment
2. You make your staff unhappy enough that they leave for a more generous employer

TELLIT01

It's not just NHS.  Years ago I worked for one of the major banks and their policy is the same and follows HMRC rules.  As a person can't claim mileage for their normal commute, that distance is deducted from the total mileage travelled.  If the employee had travelled to their normal place of work and then gone to another location all mileage from the base office can be claimed.

DullGreyGuy

Companies dont have to pay you anything at all so deducting your average commute is acceptable 

If your company doesnt pay you the full amount then you can apply for tax relief on any shortfall. 

Having worked for many companies there is a real mixed bag of rules out there... some do the "minus your normal commute", some do differentiate for those that come in by a means other than car -v- those that drive in. Worst one was one that deducted the mileage you drove that would be part of your normal commute so if your office is west of home and you go to see a client 10 miles east then you got the full 10 miles but if it was southwest you may get 5 miles as half your journey was towards the office. The guidance on how to calculate it on the company website was terrrible. 

Undervalued

EngineerTom said:

Hello,
I'm looking for some advice on the legality of the below. I'm aware of HMRC guidance and the 10 mile rule and substantially different journeys. My question is more on is this legal?

My wife works for the NHS in the community (travels to patients) and the hospital's policy on business mileage is that in a day your commute mileage to the office must be taken away from the business mileage to see a patient if you start from home.

Example. office is 20 miles west of home and you drive 30 miles east from home to see a patient. = 30b-20c = 10 miles paid. Or commute to the office and it would be 50 miles paid.

Is this legal? Staff have kicked off about this and management have not looked into changing policy. Hoping someone could advise if there's recourse on this and what it should be. HMRC guidance is one thing.
Perhaps it's tax relief on the mileage not paid. NHS staff are paid peanuts and this is just another example of them getting shafted, probably my management not understanding mileage.

Many thanks in advance.

Yes but in any case it is a moot point.

They could insist that everybody commutes to the office for 9am (say) at their own expense, then sets off from there to see the patients for which they pay mileage. Return to the office at 5.30pm (say) then commute home at their own expense.

Be careful what you wish for.

BikingBud

Undervalued said:

EngineerTom said:

Hello,
I'm looking for some advice on the legality of the below. I'm aware of HMRC guidance and the 10 mile rule and substantially different journeys. My question is more on is this legal?

My wife works for the NHS in the community (travels to patients) and the hospital's policy on business mileage is that in a day your commute mileage to the office must be taken away from the business mileage to see a patient if you start from home.

Example. office is 20 miles west of home and you drive 30 miles east from home to see a patient. = 30b-20c = 10 miles paid. Or commute to the office and it would be 50 miles paid.

Is this legal? Staff have kicked off about this and management have not looked into changing policy. Hoping someone could advise if there's recourse on this and what it should be. HMRC guidance is one thing.
Perhaps it's tax relief on the mileage not paid. NHS staff are paid peanuts and this is just another example of them getting shafted, probably my management not understanding mileage.

Many thanks in advance.

Yes but in any case it is a moot point.

They could insist that everybody commutes to the office for 9am (say) at their own expense, then sets off from there to see the patients for which they pay mileage. Return to the office at 5.30pm (say) then commute home at their own expense.

Be careful what you wish for.

And that then becomes even messier as people travel needlessly in the wrong direction, it reduces flexibility adds traffic to the roads needlessly, increase traffic jams and delays and just annoys everyone.

Milages should be hypothetical based upon travel from work or actual travelled direct from home.

Undervalued

BikingBud said:

Undervalued said:

EngineerTom said:

Hello,
I'm looking for some advice on the legality of the below. I'm aware of HMRC guidance and the 10 mile rule and substantially different journeys. My question is more on is this legal?

My wife works for the NHS in the community (travels to patients) and the hospital's policy on business mileage is that in a day your commute mileage to the office must be taken away from the business mileage to see a patient if you start from home.

Example. office is 20 miles west of home and you drive 30 miles east from home to see a patient. = 30b-20c = 10 miles paid. Or commute to the office and it would be 50 miles paid.

Is this legal? Staff have kicked off about this and management have not looked into changing policy. Hoping someone could advise if there's recourse on this and what it should be. HMRC guidance is one thing.
Perhaps it's tax relief on the mileage not paid. NHS staff are paid peanuts and this is just another example of them getting shafted, probably my management not understanding mileage.

Many thanks in advance.

Yes but in any case it is a moot point.

They could insist that everybody commutes to the office for 9am (say) at their own expense, then sets off from there to see the patients for which they pay mileage. Return to the office at 5.30pm (say) then commute home at their own expense.

Be careful what you wish for.

And that then becomes even messier as people travel needlessly in the wrong direction, it reduces flexibility adds traffic to the roads needlessly, increase traffic jams and delays and just annoys everyone.

Milages should be hypothetical based upon travel from work or actual travelled direct from home.

Absolutely, which is why I went on to say "Be careful what you wish for"!

Frankly, the OP (on behalf of his wife) it trying to have "the penny and the bun"!

eamon

During Covid when I was doing business mileage this issue raised its head. I and some colleagues were classing Home as a temp Office. Payroll & the accountant said that this was incorrect and that we should pretend that we travel to the official office every day and end there as well. As it happened I had kept my mileage records from before Covid and after a few months I done a comparison there was very little difference.