Travel costs as allowable expense

Key points

• The 24-month rules can appear to be the only factor in determining whether a workplace is permanent.
• Continuous work and the 40% limit.
• Fixed-term appointments and secondments.
• For workers using intermediaries each employment is treated as separate.
• The workplace rules are not altered if outcome does not match expectation.

Tax advisers who deal regularly with workplace expense claims often hear clients (and others) refer to the ‘24-month rule’ on a regular basis. This refers to the idea that an employee on being asked to work somewhere other than their usual place of work for less than 24 months is entitled to claim their travel expenses as tax relief. Of course as with most aspects of taxation regulation the rules are not quite so simple. We will see that duration is only one factor to be taken into account when determining whether a temporary workplace is truly temporary.

That this...