More 2 year expense queries!

[lith]

Hi,
Apologies if this has been covered in previous threads, not managed to find it so far...!

I've had my current contract extended way over the 24 month period (almost 4 years now) so no more travel expenses. Lots of lovely tax

The client is currently in the process of a big merger, so my initial question was going to be if anyone has experience of how this has affected their client / place of work situation (from a legal point of view) - i.e. as your client is effectively a different deparment of a different company, is this sufficient in itself to start the 2 year clock again (I assume there will at least be some changes to contracts needed...) - if not, what would be needed?

...but from reading other 2 year threads on here/HMRC info it seems that maybe the change of the office I am officially assigned to would be enough, so long as it is not in the same area - this seems to be a little vaguely defined by the HMRC... what counts as a significant change to your travel? Say, for example it is 20 miles east from my accomodation, then with the new location 20 miles west. This is the same distance, but could take a significant amount more or less of time/fuel to get there depending on the route etc.
So... would it need to be 10 miles further? 10 mins further? 20? etc. Would the oposite direction (for example) be enough?
Any ideas? HMRC gives *some* examples but it looks like a pretty grey area

Next...the 40% of time - does this need to be something in the contract? Or is it enough for it to...just be true...
The situation I'm in is the client has an office, there my collegues and I have non-assigned hot-desks as we are not perm staff. If I need to go into the office, I find a free space. If there's none it's down to a noisy server room where there is space
Other times it's either working from home or at one of the client's customer sites
So....if I'm not required to go to the client's site more than 2 days a week (as is the case now) because I'm required to be elsewhere / can carry out the work from home - what do I need to do to *prove* this so I can claim travel expenses for the times I do need to go there?
2 days @ customer, 2 days @ client isn't so far off the 5 days before the 2 year limit....
Current example is home = 0 mins, customer = 40 mins walk, client = 40 mins (rush hour) drive...pretty different journeys

Contractually it says:
"...or such other site of the Client or the Supplier as may be agreed as expedient from time to time for performance of the Services"
Guessing that's pretty standard?



Finally (just thought of it, more for amusement than a serious question but...) when I first started the contract, all bills etc were still sent to my parent's house -> rented room could be claimed as temporary accomodation, along with the train tickets to prove I was returning home most weekends (work permitting). Great.
Now not any more, plus been here a while so...
If it turns out that the place of work can be considered only temporary, what do you reckon the chances of getting away with saying "well I bought this house while I´m here temporarily as it would cost less than renting for the duration of the contract...so I´m going to claim back my morgage as an expense..." would be? House in girlriends name, rent it from her? Hmm.....

Hm..first post here and thats about 4 posts long, oops...
Anyway, so..whatcha think?

[MrsGoof]

yep post is too damn long. I only read the first bit and last bit, so re travel claims. I started the clock again when client moved from 55miles south to 40 miles west of where I lived.

I took the view that I could start the 24 month clock again as the location is completely different. I'm sure your example is file as well.

[tim123]

The term 'significant change' would use the meaning that the average person would ascribe to it.

What do you (the average person) think that it means?

tim

[lith]

The term 'significant change' would use the meaning that the average person would ascribe to it.

What do you (the average person) think that it means?

tim

Well... I think it could mean several things, that's the whole problem!

And I think it is more up to what the tax'persons' think it means than me as an average person. Unfortunately I don't get to make the rules...

Maybe different rules apply, but if e.g. you were doing small-scale PC support within an area, within an x mile radius your travel time to clients might be pretty similar... I'd interpret it to mean after 2 years they wouldn't be able to claim mileage... but that that doesn't seem 'right' ... (I suppose the official answer would be this needs to be factored into your rate...?)

Re the merger of client and moving location situation, if some people leave because of the change it can't be insignificant...but if you happen to be right in between 2 locations by sheer 'luck' then maybe it isn't. I like clearcut lines!

I suppose it's the sort of thing that would need to be argued on a case-by-case basis .. as it is I'm not even at the client's site 2 days a week but because *on paper* they are located somewhere my umbrella company won't accept travel expenses there, other ones say different but at the end of the day it's risk to you not them so...

[lith]

yep post is too damn long. I only read the first bit and last bit, so re travel claims. I started the clock again when client moved from 55miles south to 40 miles west of where I lived.

I took the view that I could start the 24 month clock again as the location is completely different. I'm sure your example is file as well.

sorry. Too long doing support where if it's not long enough we must be hiding smth p

Hm. Wonder if any info about hmrc investigations is public? i.e. set a precedent on what the taxman has decided it all actually means to back you up!

My opinion is going to be bias, that yep that is significantly different... but you're travelling less distance and don't need to e.g. hop on a boat instead of just driving so..

Merh