Ordinary commuting
3.2
The term ‘ordinary commuting’ means any travel between a permanent workplace and:
- home
- any other place which is not a workplace
A workplace is a place where the employee’s attendance is necessary for the performance of the duties of that employment. The meaning of permanent workplace is explained at paragraph 3.10.
For most employees this means that ordinary commuting is the journey they make most days between their home and their normal place of work. However, for some employees the position is more complicated.
3.3
In general, there is no tax relief for the cost of travel between an employee’s permanent workplace and:
- an employee’s home
- any other place the employee visits for non-work reasons
- any place where the employee performs the duties of another job
Example
James works 5 days a week at an office in central Birmingham which is his permanent workplace. From Monday to Thursday he travels to Birmingham from his home.
This journey is ordinary commuting. However, on a Thursday he always goes out for the evening with friends and often stays at a friend’s house overnight from where he travels directly into work in the morning.
His journey from his friend’s house to his permanent workplace is also ordinary commuting as it’s travel to a permanent workplace from a place which is not a workplace.
Example
Dermot’s employer sometimes needs him to attend his permanent workplace outside normal working hours – for example, at the weekend. This means he incurs extra costs on bus fares, the cost of meals eaten at his desk and sometimes even the cost of overnight accommodation near his workplace.
No tax relief is available for any of this expenditure because all journeys between home and his permanent workplace are ordinary commuting. It makes no difference that Dermot’s employer needs him to make the journeys or that they’re made outside his normal working hours.