EIM32445 - Other expenses: childminding or other domestic expenses

No deduction is due under Section 336 ITEPA 2003 for costs incurred by an employee in paying someone to look after children or to perform other domestic duties so that he or she can go out to work.

This rule has been supported by the Courts on a number of occasions. In Halstead v Condon (46TC289) a widower paid for someone to look after his children while he was at work. It was decided in the High Court that no deduction could be given because the expenditure was not incurred by the employee in the performance of his duties. The expenditure only put the employee in a position to perform those duties, see EIM31650.

A similar conclusion was reached in the case of Bowers v Harding (3TC22), which concerned the cost of employing a domestic servant to carry out the duties of a wife who was in employment.