EIM32310 - Travel expenses: travel for necessary attendance: safeguards against abuse: journeys treated as ordinary commuting: example

An employee is an accountant. She normally works from Monday to Friday and drives the 20 miles to the office that is her permanent workplace. She needs to see a client who lives ½ mile away from her office. The client can only find time to discuss his accounts at the weekend. So one Saturday she drives to the client’s home, travelling 19½ miles along her ordinary commuting route. After she has seen the client she carries on to her office to catch up on some paperwork.

The client’s home is a temporary workplace. The journey to the client’s home is along the employee’s ordinary commuting route and is substantially the same length. So it is ordinary commuting, see EIM32300. No deduction is due for the cost of the travel.

This example is a reminder that a journey can be ordinary commuting, or substantially ordinary commuting, even if it is made outside the employee’s normal working hours, see EIM32240.