EIM32356 - Travel expenses: travel in the performance of the duties: home to work travel

Section 337 ITEPA 2003

The Courts have established as a clear general principle that the cost of travelling from an employee’s home to his or her normal place of work is not travel in the performance of the duties, see EIM31650. The expense merely puts the employee into a position to perform his or her duties.

The cases that have established this principle are:

Cook v Knott 2TC246
Revell v Directors of Elworthy Bros & Co Ltd 3TC12
Andrews v Astley 8TC589
Ricketts v Colquhoun 10TC118, see EIM31641
Nolder v Walters 15TC380
Burton v Rednall 35TC435
Parikh v Sleeman 63TC75, see EIM32360
Miners v Atkinson 68TC629, see EIM32380
Kirkwood v Evans 74TC481, see EIM32374

The only exceptions to this rule are:

  • travel from home to a temporary workplace, see EIM32000
  • where the employee has a travelling appointment, see EIM32366
  • where the employee’s home is a place of work and the place where the employee lives is dictated by the requirements of the job, see EIM32370
  • where the duties of the employment are carried out wholly or partly outside the UK, see EIM34020
  • where a non-domiciled employee is working in the UK, see EIM35030
  • emergency call-outs see EIM32386.