EIM32309 - Travel expenses: travel for necessary attendance: safeguards against abuse: journeys treated as ordinary commuting: example

An employee is a senior executive in a publishing company. He normally drives 5 miles north from his home to the office that is his permanent workplace. One day he has to visit a client to discuss proposals for a new magazine. The client’s office is 5 miles south of his home. After the meeting he drives 10 miles to his permanent workplace.

The client’s office is a temporary workplace. The 5-mile journey from home to the client’s office is the same length as the employee’s ordinary commuting journey but is in a completely different direction. So it is not substantially ordinary commuting, see EIM32300. He is entitled to mileage allowance relief for that journey. The cost of his 10-mile journey from the client’s office direct to his permanent workplace is also deductible because it is a journey between 2 workplaces, see EIM32360. The employee is entitled to mileage allowance relief on the full 15-mile journey, see EIM31330.