Business Usage and BIK

johnnydriver wrote: »

Neil

The issue here is that I am being forced to deduct my normal commute miles from a journey that involved NO commute.

E.g, I drove in the opposite direction from the office from home worked for a few hours and then drove back home.

I also believe this is a cost cutting measure where the employer is passing their costs onto me. Unless anyone anywhere is able to actually say where HMRC state this.

See here

johnnydriver wrote: »

HI

I am told that when driving your own vehicle or a company car for work purposes, the ordinary commute must be deducted from the mileage claim even no journey to the ordinary place of work is made.

That is not an HMRC rule. HMRC allow you to claim the full business mileage if you start a business journey from home, unless you stop at the office on your way for something "substantive". Even if you drive past your normal workplace on the way to a business meeting, the whole journey is claimable according to HMRC rules.

There is an exception if the journey is substantially the same as your normal commute, eg to an office next door.

However companies can have different rules to HMRC, they may insist you deduct commuting mileage. If so, you can claim tax relief on the difference, but you need to maintain 2 sets of mileage records, HMRC allowed mileage and company claimed mileage.

In the scenario that my usual commute to my permanent place of work is a round trip of 50 miles. If i drove for business purposes, from my home 100 mile round trip, i would have to deduct 50 miles from my claim otherwise HMRC see me being reimbursed for a commute that i would've had to take had i not needed to make the work journey as a benefit in kind.

That is rubbish. Unless as above you stop at the office for something substantive.

In over 20 years of driving for work purposes i have never heard of this. I can find nothing in the HMRC guidance to suggest this either.

Has anyone else ever heard of this and perhaps point me in the direction of the official guidance?


Thanks

This is aimed at employers but give full chaper and verse. See in particular 3.48 & 3.49
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/782253/490_Employee_travel_-_a_tax_and_NICs_guide_for_employers.pdf

DUTR wrote: »

Common sense should tell you that you deduct your commute mileage from home to office.
Otherwise you are fiddling the taxman!
Ask Alcapone about messing with them, for the sake of £14-£22.50 is it worth it all?

You're completely wrong. Common sense says no such thing. how you get into your normal workplace is down to you and no tax relief is available, but if you're going somewhere else that's fully claimable. You might save on the commute, but you might not, eg you might have a season ticket on the train, you might share a lift etc.

That's why HMRC allow you to claim business journeys in full, without having to deduct an imaginary journey not made.

zagfles wrote: »

That is not an HMRC rule. HMRC allow you to claim the full business mileage if you start a business journey from home, unless you stop at the office on your way for something "substantive". Even if you drive past your normal workplace on the way to a business meeting, the whole journey is claimable according to HMRC rules.

There is an exception if the journey is substantially the same as your normal commute, eg to an office next door.

However companies can have different rules to HMRC, they may insist you deduct commuting mileage. If so, you can claim tax relief on the difference, but you need to maintain 2 sets of mileage records, HMRC allowed mileage and company claimed mileage. That is rubbish. Unless as above you stop at the office for something substantive. This is aimed at employers but give full chaper and verse. See in particular 3.48 & 3.49
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/782253/490_Employee_travel_-_a_tax_and_NICs_guide_for_employers.pdf

Interesting PDF file there, section 3, shows some examples , some indicate that the commute mileage should be deducted and other examples suggest not.
However it is not me claiming, I and my employer allow to claim for extra mileage over and above the usual commute.

zagfles wrote: »

Commute mileage is never "deducted" in HMRC rules. Commuting is not claimable, business journeys are. If you commute to the office and do some work, then do a business journey to a client, that's 2 journeys. The first is not claimable, the second is.

If you go direct from home to the client that's all a business journey and is all claimable without any deduction. There's nothing in any HMRC rules that say you have to deduct mileage for a commute you didn't do!

As mentioned earlier, that has been the way it has always been from my employer, just this week I had to commute to another office 40 miles away, I more or less have to pass my regular office (even if I was travelling in the opposite direction to an alternative office), I deduct my commute mileage after all, I would have had to travel to work anyways.

If I had to get the train, I have to commute to the station, so I don't claim for the bus fare on top of the rail ticket.

Even if HMRC didn't set the rule HR has , so for me the few quid isn't worth the agro of the consequences it may bring.