EIM32807 - Other expenses: home: working from home: service companies: example

Sections 336-338 ITEPA 2003

A computer programmer is a director of her own service company. The registered office of the company is at her home. The company obtains contracts for software installation that are fulfilled by the director at the premises of clients. She also does some work at her home in Edinburgh, but this amounts to no more than bookkeeping.

In 2003/04 the company has a contract with a client in Glasgow for 9 months. It pays the travelling expenses of the director between Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The director’s home is not a workplace. She does not perform any substantive duties at home and there is no requirement that she must work at home, see EIM32800. No deduction for travel expenses can be given under Section 337 ITEPA 2003. Nevertheless a dispensation can be given for the expenses paid by the company, see EIM30051. The site in Glasgow is a temporary workplace (see EIM32075) and so a deduction is permitted under Section 338 ITEPA 2003.