Travel expenses - change of location (4miles)

[TykeMerc]

Not neceseraly.

If the OP was commuting 0.5 miles and now will be commuting 4.5 miles then it is a substantially different journey. IMO.

However if the change is 50 miles to 54 then it isn't.

I had thought of citing that kind of example, but since it would amount to £1.60 a trip I assumed that it could be neglected by both the contractor and HMRC

[Bob Jones]

I have covered this at http://www.contractoralliance.co.uk/...-to-site.phtml As I say in that article the reason for the introduction of this rule was one of anti avoidance. Previous posts in this thread have answered the question correctly in that if, say, you are 50 miles away and are moved 4 miles from that location the journey will be substantially the same but if you work 1 mile west of home and are transfered 3 miles east the journey is entirely different and will qualify as a change of location. The rule of thumb used by HMRC is a difference of more than 10 miles - but that doesn't necessarily work where, as in the previous example, the person lives close to the workplaces -- say a journey starts 200 miles away and the workplace is moved 11 miles the journey could be 95% the same and yet it would qualify as it is more than 10 miles - it is an example of a rule that had to be introduced to prevent tax avoidance but on occasions it becomes unworkable. I have a number of similar problem cases under enquiry with HMRC at the moment - they are (unfortunately lower division) professional and semi professional footballers who have various training venues - - for example. a club has two training venues one 7 miles east of the home ground and the other 5 miles west of the home ground .. from where do you measure the 10 miles???? If the player attends training ground A, then the following day attends the home ground for a match and then attends training ground B no journey is more than 10 miles from the previously attended workplace - but if the player goes to training ground A and the following day goes to training ground B then there is a difference of more than 10 miles .. so the whole situation becomes unworkable .. .I have an appointment in February with the Special Civil Investgation department of HMRC to try to iron out these problems and arrive at a workable solution. HMRC do pick up these cases - occasionally- or in the case of footballers very very occasionally ... I will update the Con Alliance website when I have something further to report ..
Bob

[opc]

Rolls-Royce in Derby?