Hello
I am a first time scribbler but been a member for a little while so here goes.
I feel I can't see the wood from the trees with this scenario.
Sole Trader does all the work at home but attends clients home/work places to discuss about or pick up paperwork.
The distances can be between 30-60 miles away. The virtual office address is a lot closer to the clients.
In practice the base of operations (BOO) is his home but in theory or reality his business address could technically be his BOO.
Would travel expenses for use of vehicle be permitted from the home address or virtual office?
Would having appointments at the virtual office influence the decision?
Cheers
Replies (6)
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Do you really mean 'virtual'?
'Virtual' can mean 'not really existing as such, but appearing to do so'. So how can you travel to or have meetings at a place that doesn't exist?
Perhaps
'Virtual' can mean 'not really existing as such, but appearing to do so'. So how can you travel to or have meetings at a place that doesn't exist?
It is synthetic, and not, therefore, real.
This base of operations concept
Has become annoying. It was the test originally set out in Newsom v Robertson, but it is now being misapplied by tribunals, such that soletraders are being given multiple bases of operation.
The test is whether or not the expense relates (at least in part) to the trader living away from the business. If we put the business in multiple places, we require the trader to be omnipresent, and we have a ridiculous test.
What we are looking for is the locus quo of the business. In Newsom v Robertson it was his chambers. In Horton v Young it was his home. In Sargent v Barnes it was his dental surgery. In Jackman v Powell it was the area of the milkround. In Samadian it was St Antony's Hospital in Cheam (where he habitually referred his patients and spent 6 nights a week doing his rounds, contrary to the tribunals' decisions). In White is was, to my mind, indubitably his home (contrary to the tribunal's decision).
What do they all have in common? The locus quo was where the customers expected to habitually find the trader.
What virtual office?
I was assuming that the "virtual" office is actually a building that rents out rooms to conduct meetings in.
However, from the description, I cannot see any meetings being held at such a place. All work is done at home. All meetings are held at client premises (business or home). That being the case I think we need some clarity on what exactly this virtual office is and how it is used.
By the sounds of things, the virtual address is basically the registered office address for HMRC and Companies House purpose. This can be different to the principal base of work. In this case, the operations are carried out at home so in my opinion, it is acceptable to put in travel expenses from home to anywhere he has to go.
I have applied this logic to a number of clients who use registered office addresses as they want to keep their home addresses private.