Travelling expenses

**tractor** · 13 December 2014, 11:22

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Originally posted by tails007 View Post

Hi all,

My 1st post here, looking forward to some help if you can.

I appreciate that there are other posts on this matter, but wanted to get some clarification on my circumstances as opposed to generic advice in other posts, so please dont shoot me!

I contract and operate under a ltd company which was setup mid 2013

I live 2 hours away from London but all my contracts so far have been based in London. The main train to london is always the same regardless of if I am north/east/south/west based so on a monthly basis the £value would be the same, only the Oyster card on top would fluctuate slightly.

Being honest, the below are the costs which I incur on a monthly basis to get to the offices at which I work. Current contract is at the 6 month mark and is likely to extend for another 3.

Train - £550
Car Park - £80
Mileage - £150
Oyster - £100

Does anyone have a feeling as to whether or not I can claim for some or all of these expenses? As it is cheaper to buy monthly tickets, the value would always appear to be the same even if I was to then only work 1 day at an office in a week.

If the recurring same value is likely to cause an issue is it advisable to simple expense lower amounts? IE i'd still be paying the same as the above and out of pocket to that amount, but to claim back varying lower amounts over the months eg Train £420 one month, £300 the next, £475 after that etc etc

Thanks for any help!

You need to make yourself familiar with the 24 month rule, there are sticky posts elsewhere, try the links on the right.

Only your working practices will tell you whether it is worth getting weekly, monthly or longer season tickets for rail. Yes there are a lot of savings to be had but remember, you can only claim what you spend wholly and necessarily for work. If you regularly wfh say 3 days/week, it is unlikely that a season ticket will be beneficial but if you travel say 3 weeks out of 4 then yes it would be.

Obviously the car park, mileage and oyster cost would be claimable until you fall foul of the 24 month rule. You need to be clear that the cut off for that is the point at which you know you will be there longer than 24 months.

**TheCyclingProgrammer** · 13 December 2014, 12:08

As a general rule, season tickets are fully allowable where it would cost more to buy individual tickets.

**jmo21** · 13 December 2014, 13:42

Originally posted by tails007 View Post

Does anyone have a feeling as to whether or not I can claim for some or all of these expenses?

Of course you can, but as others have said, familiarise yourself with the 24 month rule.

Also, re: 'claim', just in case you aren't aware, you only effectively save 20% by putting it through as an expense.

**Alan @ BroomeAffinity** · 13 December 2014, 14:18

And remember the 24 month rule doesn't just apply to your contracting career so if your permie job beforehand was in the same (or similar) location then you need to factor this in.

**TheCyclingProgrammer** · 13 December 2014, 18:54

Also bear in mind that the 24 month rule is based on more than just location - the length and cost of journey has to be taken into account too.

So if you lived near East London, your commute to an office in the City might be substantially different to one you might make to one on the West side of London, and so would be counted as a new location. However as you live hours away from London such that the the significant part of your journey is the 2 hour trip into London and working in different parts of London has little substantial effect on your journey, then the whole of London could be treated as the same location.

In other words, if all of your contracts are in central London and your journey remains largely the same for each client, the 24 month rule is very likely to bite.

**tails007** · 13 December 2014, 20:08

Originally posted by jmo21 View Post

Of course you can, but as others have said, familiarise yourself with the 24 month rule.

Also, re: 'claim', just in case you aren't aware, you only effectively save 20% by putting it through as an expense.

Thanks. .. 20% is quite a lot on that amount. ... is there another option then that I'm not seeing?

**tails007** · 13 December 2014, 20:10

Thanks all. .Appreciate the help. I'm familiar with the 24 month rule but not clear on what constitutes regular. .. 3/5 days a week at the same office? Is there a hard and fast rule?

**TheCyclingProgrammer** · 13 December 2014, 23:17

Originally posted by tails007 View Post

Thanks all. .Appreciate the help. I'm familiar with the 24 month rule but not clear on what constitutes regular. .. 3/5 days a week at the same office? Is there a hard and fast rule?

24 month rule kicks in if you spend more than 40% of your time there (evaluated over the previous 24 months on average). So yes, 3/5 days would normally constitute regular.

**Boney M** · 13 December 2014, 23:34

Surely your monthly season ticket with added zones 1-6 would be far cheaper than the £100 PAYG Oyster? Mine only comes in at en extra £59 and my season is £681.60 without the add on

Travelling expenses