3.29
Where the main reason an employee regularly attends a workplace is because it’s the:
- base from which they work
- place where they’re routinely allocated we’ll not regard their attendance as being of a limited duration or for a temporary purpose
Example
Ian is employed as a bus driver. He picks up his vehicle from a depot each day.
Attendance at that depot at the start and finish of each shift may be brief but the depot is still his permanent workplace.
There is no tax relief for the cost of Ian’s travel between home and the depot because it’s ordinary commuting.
3.30
This does not mean that every place from which an employee works or at which they are allocated tasks is necessarily a permanent workplace.
We’ll regard a depot or similar workplace as a permanent workplace if:
- the employee attends it regularly
- the main reason the employee goes there is because it’s the place from which they work or at which they’re routinely allocated tasks
- it’s the main or only place from which the employee works or at which they’re routinely allocated tasks
Example
Jane is employed as a management consultant. She has no permanent workplace. She spends most of her time working from home or at the premises of various clients.
At other times she ‘hot-desks’ at her employer’s offices in various locations or works on the train while travelling between clients.
Jane can be allocated tasks while she is at any of these places. But this is not the reason she goes there. She goes to visit clients and carry out other tasks of limited duration.
Even though she is sometimes allocated tasks at each of these places none of them is her permanent workplace.
3.31
However, where an employee regularly attends a workplace to be routinely allocated tasks while there, that workplace will be a permanent workplace – even if certain tasks are allocated to the employee elsewhere.
Example
Matthew is employed as an electrician. Each morning he visits a depot where he is given his job list for the day.
His employer usually contacts him during the day to make changes to that job list. He is therefore, allocated tasks in many different places.
However, Matthew’s depot is still the place he attends regularly where he is routinely allocated tasks and it’s, therefore, his permanent workplace. So, travel between his home and the depot is ordinary commuting for which no tax relief is available.
Matthew will still be able to claim tax relief for his business travel.
Example
Jill is employed as a plumber. She has no permanent workplace and can work on more than 100 sites in any one year. She receives instructions about where to work over the phone.
She calls into her employer’s premises most Wednesdays to collect piping and replacement tools. Calls of this type do not make the employer’s premises into a depot or other permanent workplace.
Jill can claim tax relief for all her journeys.