Tax tip: Temporary workplace relief and the self-employed

Temporary workplace relief allows employees to claim certain ‘expenses’ including travel costs to a temporary workplace and where appropriate accommodation and related expenses at this temporary workplace as tax deductible. In particular advisers understand that these rules may provide tax relief for temporary transfers which are expected to:

• last up to 24 months; and
• where that workplace doesn’t represent ‘substantively the full period of employment’; or potentially
• where someone has a second workplace which constitutes less than 40% of the overall working time and for which there is no ‘regular’ pattern vis-à-vis the second location.

The formal temporary workplace relief rules are though available only for employees. There is no direct equivalent of the detached duty rules in ITEPA 2003 s 339(5) and s 339(6) for self-employed individuals. So when assessing whether tax relief is available for temporary working costs for self-employed...