Please can I get some advice as to which business miles I can claim?
To keep it simple, I will give the places 'letters'.
I live at 'A'
I work at 'B'
I went on a course at 'C'
And I visited a client at 'D'
When I visited the client at 'D' I went from my home address, so am I right in presuming the miles I will claim are A to D and back to A again?
When I went on the course, I drove to work as normal (A to B) then I drove to the course (B to C) then I drove home (C to A).
Please can someone let me know which miles I should claim?
Replies (22)
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not A-B or B-A
What your employer pays you is between them and you, but what would be tax deductible would be anything except A to B or B to A.
EDIT - by tax deductible I mean you won't get charged PAYE & NIC on it your employer pays you the mileage, or if they don't you can reclaim in a s336 claim
don't overcomplicate it
Sorry, do you mean you would have had to drive home from work were you not at the course?
To be allowable for tax, it just has to be actual mileage done, and not travel to your usual place of work from home (or vice versa).
You really don't need to do anything complicated like calculate the additional miles you have travelled in addition to what you would have travelled anyway, it really is that simple.
surely
Surely if the employer did not pay them then they would be covered under ITEPA s337/338?
Ask your Employer
The easiest thing to do is ask your employer, but in my experience most employer's policy was to pay mileage over and above your normal daily mileage.
E.g. it is 40 miles round trip to your office on a daily basis. You travel to a client's office and your total mileage for that day is 50 miles, you can claim the 10.
The next day you travel to a client's office and the total mileage is 20 miles (the client is closer than the office) then you can't claim anything.
Your employer will tell you what their company policy is.
training contract
Could be covered if, for example, it's if a training contract http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/eimanual/EIM32535.htm
Most accountancy training contracts would meet the criteria.
claiming
We were always told:
Claim example
home to office 5 miles
office to clients 10miles
clients to office 10 miles
office to home 5 miles
Total claim 20 miles
If going straight to clients from home, then claim would be home to clients less home to office.
(so we always made sure we forgot to take something from the office!)
Not the first time!
This is not the first time this has come up on this website. See :-
https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/anyanswers/employee-travel-expenses
-: but do appreciate that was seven years ago.
Surely ...
... if employment contract states you will required to attend suitable training courses as prescribed by your employer then any expenses would be in the course of the employment?
Not an expert, just wondering!
Further to OGA
if you are directed by your employer to atend a training course I find it difficult to understand why that is not allowable mileage. Journeys to and from the office are generally not claimable but in some circumstances they are.
C M Joad strikes again!
With respect to the course, it depends what you mean by "claim"
If you mean "claim as an expense from your employer", ask her.
If you mean self-fund and "claim as tax relievable in your next HMRC assessment", follow Portia's advice - particularly with respect to "self-improvement" versus "job-specific" training.
With respect to the client the excess mileage involved might be a good basis for an approach to your employer - although if you are your employer's accountant, she might expect you to advise her !
The only time ever...
... that the courts have accepted that training expenses were incurred wholly, exclusively and necessarily in the performance of the duties of the employment, was in the case of Dr Piu Banerjee, which is discussed in EIM32535.
Most training will fail the "wholly and exclusively" or "in the performance" elephants. Employees under a training contract aren't just undertaking the training for the employer; they're doing it for their own ends too, meaning it isn't wholly and exclusively.
CPD type training isn't the performance of the duties of the employment. People are expected to do it, but it isn't a duty of the employment, as such. It's a requirement of the employer so that they are able to competently perform the duties of the employment, and the employee does again benefit personally.
In the context of the travel costs many employers actually pay a lower rate of mileage for travel for training purposes, because the training also benefits the employee.
It is a point that you can expect HMRC to pick up on if a claim is made.
As has been said though, anything that the employer pays for is exempt.
Business - use of personal car "mileage allowance"
Sophie,
Having engaged in all the above communications about "how much you can claim from your employer for use of your vehicle for business purposes, I suspect that you are totally confused and maybe "lost the will to live" !
The subject is fundamentally split into two separate elements - a) the amount per mile that the employer is prepared to reimburse his employee (this could be part of a monthly travel allowance) for business mileage using a personal vehicle and b) the amount per mile that HMRC approve as an allowable expense to be received by the employee free of Income Tax and National Insurance.
Element (a) - you need to enquire from your employer
Element (b) - http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/mileage/employee-factsheet.pdf gives background to the subject from HMRC - http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/payerti/exb/a-z/m/mileage-expenses.htm
brings together information on taxation and NI rates - www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/321897... which is a general, but more useful view of allowable expenses with examples of more complex situations such as you described .
You will also need a copy of the current Mileage Allowances ! That's the easy bit !
Happy reading ! I am available to help if you are still unsure
Muddying the water
Would it make a difference if the usual journey between home and work is done by bike? No doubt the company would have a policy or some fast-thinking Director would have to think one up on the spot.
Tax Deductable Business Mileage for Employees
Mileage Allowance Relief
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/incometax/relief-mileage.htm
I think this is how it goes - for business mileage (training issues notwithstanding):
For the 45p limit to 10,000 miles, if your employer doesn't pay the full 45p, you can claim the difference as a tax deduction.