5 min read

Travel and Subsistence Expenses

If you're an employee or director travelling for work, you may be able to claim tax relief on your travel and subsistence expenses — but only if the journey qualifies as business travel. Ordinary commuting between home and your permanent workplace doesn't qualify, even if your...

Introduction

What counts as business travel

Tax relief is available for two types of business travel:

Travel in the performance of duties — this is travel "on the job" rather than "to the job". The most common example is travelling between two workplaces during your working day. For instance, if you manage teams in two different offices and regularly travel between them, that journey qualifies for relief.

Another example is where travel is integral to your role. Service engineers, commercial travellers, or anyone with "travelling appointments" who moves from place to place during the day can claim relief for all their business travel, including journeys from home to their first appointment and from their last appointment home.

Travel to a temporary workplace — you can claim relief for journeys to or from a place you must attend to carry out your employment duties, provided it's a temporary workplace (explained below) and not ordinary commuting.

Ordinary commuting: what doesn't qualify

Ordinary commuting means travel between your permanent workplace and either your home or any other place that isn't a workplace. For most people, this is the daily journey between home and their normal place of work.

You cannot claim tax relief for ordinary commuting, even if:

Your employer requires you to attend your permanent workplace outside normal working hours (including weekends)
You incur extra costs for transport, meals, or even overnight accommodation near your workplace
Your employer reimburses the costs

The fact that your employer needs you to make the journey, or that it's outside your normal hours, makes no difference.

You also cannot convert an ordinary commuting journey into business travel by:

Arranging a business appointment somewhere along the route
Stopping to make work phone calls on the way

The journey must be genuinely necessary for performing your employment duties, not simply for personal convenience.

What is a permanent workplace?

A place is your permanent workplace if you attend it regularly for the performance of your employment duties and it's not a temporary workplace.

"Regular attendance" means your attendance is:

Frequent
Follows a pattern
Continues for all or almost all of the period you're likely to hold that employment

Even fortnightly travel can count as regular attendance, though the longer the interval between visits, the more likely it may be for a temporary purpose. You can have two or more permanent workplaces, and you cannot claim tax relief for travel from home to any of them.

Temporary workplaces

A temporary workplace is somewhere you attend only to perform a task of limited duration or for a temporary purpose. Travel to and from temporary workplaces can qualify for tax relief.

For example, if you have a permanent workplace but must spend several days each month visiting clients or suppliers around the country (often travelling directly from home), you can claim relief for the full cost of that business travel — but not for your travel to your permanent workplace.

Multiple employments

If you hold two separate employments with different employers, you cannot normally claim tax relief for travel between the two workplaces, even if you go directly from one job to the other.

However, relief is available if you hold employments with two or more companies within the same group of companies. For this purpose, companies are in the same group if one is at least a 51% subsidiary of the other, or both are at least 51% subsidiaries of a third company.

Non-executive directors

Non-executive directors are treated as office holders, and the same travel expense rules apply to them. Whether you can claim relief depends on whether the workplace you're travelling to is temporary or permanent.

When employers pay or reimburse commuting costs

If your employer (or a third party) pays for or reimburses your ordinary commuting costs, this payment or benefit is taxable. This applies whether the employer reimburses you, pays directly for the travel, or provides travel facilities.

Reimbursements must be included as gross pay for PAYE purposes. All such payments and benefits should be reported on form P11D or through a Full Payment Submission if your employer is registered to payroll benefits.

There is an exemption for certain benefits provided through a formal workplace travel plan designed to reduce car use for commuting. Examples include:

A works bus available to all employees generally to transport them to and from work
Cycles or cycling safety equipment

What travel expenses include

The term "travel expenses" covers the actual costs of travel plus any subsistence expenditure and other associated costs incurred in making the journey. Subsistence typically means meals and other reasonable expenses while travelling.

In most cases, tax relief is available for the full cost of qualifying business travel expenses. Special rules apply where employees use their own vehicles for business travel and receive mileage payments.

Private travel

Private travel is any journey between your home and a place you don't have to be for work purposes, or between any two places you don't have to be for work purposes. No tax relief is available for private travel.

Even if you voluntarily choose to work at a location (such as taking work to your holiday cottage), this doesn't make that place a workplace, and the journey remains private travel with no relief available.

Similarly, if you travel to a workplace for a social event (such as a Christmas party) rather than for work purposes, you cannot claim relief even if that location would normally be a temporary workplace when you visit for business reasons.

Sources

This article provides general guidance based on current HMRC rules. For advice specific to your situation, speak to your accountant.

What Benefits and Expenses Are Taxable?

As an employer, you need to understand which benefits and expenses you provide to employees must be reported and taxed. Most benefits count as taxable employment income and require reporting on P11D forms and payment of Class 1A National Insurance, but there are important exem...

Exemption for Paid or Reimbursed Expenses

When you pay or reimburse business expenses to your employees, you need to understand when these payments are exempt from tax and reporting. Since April 2016, there's been a statutory exemption that covers most genuine business expenses, meaning you won't need to report them on forms P11D or deduct...

Company Cars: Tax and Benefit Charges

If your company provides you with a car that you can use for private journeys, you'll need to pay tax on this benefit. The amount you pay depends on the car's list price, its CO2 emissions, and how much private use you make of it. Understanding how company car tax is calculate...

Company Car Fuel and Company Vans

When you provide a company car or van to your employees, any fuel you supply for private use creates an additional tax charge on top of the vehicle benefit itself. These fuel benefit charges apply even if the fuel is theoretically meant for business use only, unless specific conditions are met....

Reporting Company Cars to HMRC

When you provide a company car to an employee or director for their private use, you must report this to HMRC and meet specific deadlines. This includes registering new cars, reporting when you stop providing them, and understanding what counts as private use in the first place.

Mileage Allowance Payments for Business Travel

If your employees use their own vehicles for business travel, you can reimburse them using HMRC's approved mileage rates without creating a tax or National Insurance liability. Understanding these rates—and what happens when you pay more or less than the approved amounts—helps...

Expenses for International and Overseas Travel

If your employees travel abroad for work, special tax rules can provide relief for travel and subsistence expenses that wouldn't qualify under normal UK business travel rules. These rules apply whether you're sending UK-resident employees overseas or bringing overseas employee...

Company Provided Living Accommodation

When you provide living accommodation to an employee or director, this creates a taxable benefit in kind that must be reported through payroll. The tax charge depends on the property's value, how long it's been held, and whether the accommodation qualifies for one of the limited exemptions...

Beneficial Loans to Employees

If you provide an interest-free or low-interest loan to an employee or director, this usually creates a taxable benefit that must be reported to HMRC and may result in tax and National Insurance charges. The taxable amount is the difference between interest at HMRC's official...

Common Benefits: Phones, Bikes, Training, and Social Events

Providing benefits to your employees can be a tax-efficient way to reward your team, but the tax rules vary depending on what you offer. This article explains how HMRC treats common workplace benefits including mobile phones, cycle schemes, training, and social events — and when you'll need to...

Employee Share Schemes and Securities

If you provide shares, share options, or other securities to your employees, you'll face specific tax, National Insurance, and reporting obligations. Shares and securities can trigger income tax charges at multiple points — when awarded, when restrictions lift, or when sold —...

Relocation Expenses and Allowances

If you're employing someone who needs to move house for their job, you can help them with relocation costs in a tax-efficient way. HMRC allows employers to pay or reimburse up to £8,000 of qualifying relocation expenses without creating a tax or National Insurance liability fo...