Contractor SDC case study

[PBW]

I am currently contracting as a field service engineer in the IT industry working under an umbrella company (inside IR35).

My routine is that I visit several different customer sites each day, providing 2hr/4hr/next business day responses to fault calls logged with various hardware providers (Dell, EMC, HP etc). Occasionally I need to visit one of several stores locations in order to collect parts for these calls. When possible my calls are sent to me initially at home, via phone/email, the evening before, so I can plan my following day.

No two days are ever the same, and the time spent on end customer sites varies between 30 minutes to a full day, depending on the required work.

My umbrella company have stated that my first travel, from home to stores/customer site, is no longer a claimable expence, even though this first travel could range from 4 miles (closest store) to over 200 miles (customer site).

Are they correct in giving this information, or are they just issuing blanket advice in order to save themselves the hassle of carrying out an individual assessment of my circumstances.

I have searched the web for a similar case study, to no avail, so any input or advice from members would be appreciated.

[Ketto]

That sounds to me like site to site commuting which should be allowed. It would be different if your daily commute would be home>work office>store/site, in this scenario i would think that the home>office bit would not be allowed. It sounds like the brollies have been given sod all in the way of guidance so yours is playing safe. A few umbrella companies post here so they can probably advise regards their take on this.

[Ketto]

Where is your contractual base? Home?

[mudskipper]

Do you have a 'base'? Travelling to anywhere other than your base should be permissible. If you don't have a base, who knows?

[TheFaQQer]

That sounds to me like site to site commuting which should be allowed. It would be different if your daily commute would be home>work office>store/site, in this scenario i would think that the home>office bit would not be allowed. It sounds like the brollies have been given sod all in the way of guidance so yours is playing safe. A few umbrella companies post here so they can probably advise regards their take on this.

You need to choose the words carefully - commuting is something that is not a valid business expense.

[Ketto]

True....

[eek]

True....

What is travel and what is a commute is clearly defined in HMRC's travel and expense documentation.

Being on holiday I dont have the information to hand and don't have the willingness to find it (it's a long winded document that nearly but not quite contradicts itself multiple times. But from memory with a fixed depot(s) and with an inconsistent initial journey everything should be claimable.

Personally I would be asking them to check the guidelines and if that fails find a different umbrella as this is going to be well outside the comfort zone of many of them

Given the changes from April 5th though I think many umbrellas will go for the easy option of you can't claim expenses and sack a fair few staff to save costs

[jamesbrown]

Yes, this comes down to the definition of "ordinary commuting". If an umbrella worker is subject to SDC, then T&S is not available on ordinary commuting. So the first get our is lack of SDC. Then the next get out is what constitutes ordinary commuting. This is travel between home and a permanent place of work. The changes have meant that, as an umbrella worker undertaking an engagement that is subject to SDC or a PSC worker subject to IR35, each engagement is treated as a separate employment (permanent workplace) for H2W travel.

Now, in terms of what constitutes ordinary commuting, I believe the intention was to legislate against interposing a temporary workplace in between travel to a permanent workplace. In other words, if you are subject to SDC, I don't think any travel via the "client site" is going to be claimable. However, you only mention "customer sites". These should be temporary workplaces, so you should be able to claim T&S from home to these "customer sites" (providing you are not interposing them to travel to a permanent workplace, i.e. client site); that is, by claiming the relief in your SATR. You won't get upfront relief though. I'll caveat this by saying I haven't looked at the legislation closely, because it doesn't affect me, but that was my understanding of the intention, i.e. simply to classify the client site (not "customer sites" in your language) as a permanent workplace for H2W travel when under IR35 or under an umbrella and subject to SDC.

[PBW]

Where is your contractual base? Home?

Myself, and all the perms in the company who carry out identical duties, are defined as "home based", confirmed by my line manager (and in my contract), so no permanent base exists away from my home location.

[Ketto]

Ok, well as long as you don't spend more than 40% of your time at any one location (sounds unlikely) I would have expected your travel to be 'site to site' and therefore ok. Perhaps try a couple of different unbrellas to check their understanding, sounds like yours is just playing it safe.