People with more than one workplace at the same time

Example

John is a mortgage adviser employed by a chain of building societies. He works 5 days each week but spends each day in a different branch in a different town.

He works in the same branch on the same day each week. John is not entitled to tax relief for his travel from home to any of the branches.

That is because he travels regularly to each branch and his work is neither of limited duration nor for a temporary purpose. So each branch is a separate permanent workplace.

Example

Mary is employed as an office manager by a firm of architects. The firm operates from offices in Bristol and Bath. Mary spends each morning at the office in Bristol and each afternoon at the office in Bath.

Each office is a permanent workplace. Mary is not entitled to tax relief for the cost of travel between her home and either of the offices. However, travel between the 2 workplaces is travel in the performance of her duties. So tax relief is available for the full cost of this travel.

Example

Tom is a computer games programmer working for a large game studio. He lives in Birmingham and travels daily to the company’s head office which is in Coventry. This is his permanent workplace and his journeys between home and Coventry are ordinary commuting.

The computer game’s artwork is produced by a team of graphic designers who are based at one of the company’s regional offices in Lichfield.

The game is developed in fortnightly sprints and every 2 weeks Tom’s duties require him to visit the Lichfield office to lay down goals for the forthcoming sprint and assess whether the goals he set at his previous visit have been achieved. Tom travels directly from his home in Birmingham to Lichfield on these occasions.

The fortnightly Lichfield visits are regular and part of a series of visits to the same workplace for the continuation of a particular task. Lichfield is therefore also a permanent workplace and travel from his home to those premises is ordinary commuting.