Business Mileage - Home to Work

[lewis94]

I wonder if anyone can help as I am not finding the correct information anywhere or getting confusing answers.

 

I have an employee that is claiming mileage to visit a clients offices.

As I understand it he can claim from the normal place of work to the client offices but not from home direct to the clients offices.

 

I have tried to look on HMRC but it doesnt really help.

The contract with the client says reasonable expenses are to be paid,

therefore mileage could be recovered,

however they too have raised the query on why they are paying from his home.

Any thoughts please?

[hightail]

I believe you are correct. If the distance from home to the client is longer then they have a legitimate gripe.

[lewis94]

I believe you are correct. If the distance from home to the client is longer then they have a legitimate gripe.

 

Thank you. Would anyone have a link to any useful website that could confirm

[honeybee13]

Hello there.

 

When I was involved with this last, the company said that if someone went from home to a client meeting, they would deduct the distance from home to the office from the outward journey, if you see what I mean.

 

I'm not clear from your first post about who isn't happy with this, could you tell us a little bit more please?

 

HB

[hightail]

The journey from home to your normal place of business is a commute rather than business miles so not claimable. Playing hard rules until you're at your normal place of work to set out to a client it isn't a business journey. It's HMRC rules so it should be on their website.

[lewis94]

The client isnt happy and I agree, however the employee doesnt. Would anyone have a link to HMRC for details on this?

[hightail]

The client isnt happy and I agree, however the employee doesnt.

This is why employers end up playing hardball and insisting employees do their normal commute into work before going out to clients. The client didn't contract with your employee to travel from wherever they choose to live, they contracted with your company at your normal place of business.

[TaxHero]

If the distance from home to the client is longer then from home to work the employee can claim the difference in mileage.

 

So if the commute to work is 10 miles and the commute to the client is 12 miles they can claim the 2 miles.

 

If they go to the normal place of work first and then to the client they can then claim from and to the place of work.

[smokiejoe]

Don't think HMRC tell you where your employee can claim from to that degree, that's probably a contractual matter. HMRC just set figures for allowances for travelling business miles. I imagine the employee was being paid from the time they left home? Or did you want them to come to work first, to start the clock running? What's the benefit in the argument? If the employee only works a set amount of hours in a day, isn't it beneficial to get them to drive straight to the client than coming to work first?

[TaxHero]

HMRC rules can be applied no matter what the employment contract says.

 

If the employment contract stipulates payments below the HMRC levels or any difference to the HMRC approved mileage guidelines, then a claim can be made to HMRC directly for the difference via a tax return.

[hightail]

Or did you want them to come to work first, to start the clock running? What's the benefit in the argument? If the employee only works a set amount of hours in a day, isn't it beneficial to get them to drive straight to the client than coming to work first?

In many cases it is beneficial but the distance of the commute to the 'normal place of business' cannot be claimed. It's because it causes such argument that employers do get to the point of insisting all business journeys start from the office.