Reply to: 24 month rule in London

[northernladuk]

I'm back in Laaandaaan shortly exactly 1 year and 1 day after I finished up a 2 year gig there , since then I have had 2 other gigs in different parts of the country. I'm claiming back my rail ticket as a T&S expense as in my view a significant time has passed since I was last there (am actually going back to the same client!) and that has reset the 24 month rule

Doesn't reset it as such does it?. I thought you applied the 40% rule which means the next period of not being able to claim will arrive quicker. You'll fail that rule first as the clock doesn't reset to the 24 month?

[SlipTheJab]

I'm back in Laaandaaan shortly exactly 1 year and 1 day after I finished up a 2 year gig there , since then I have had 2 other gigs in different parts of the country. I'm claiming back my rail ticket as a T&S expense as in my view a significant time has passed since I was last there (am actually going back to the same client!) and that has reset the 24 month rule

[WTFH]

Does the clock reset if you stop working for someone? You are 1 2 3 months at home then you find another contract close to the previous ie Bank and London Bridge.

Yes it does.


If you are at home for 123 months.




If "1 2 3" means something other than 123, then please correct your grammar so that it makes sense the way you meant it to.

[Drei]

Nope.

Thanks

[kaiser78]

Does the clock reset if you stop working for someone? You are 1 2 3 months at home then you find another contract close to the previous ie Bank and London Bridge.

Nope.

[northernladuk]

Does the clock reset if you stop working for someone? You are 1 2 3 months at home then you find another contract close to the previous ie Bank and London Bridge.

Jesus wept. Go read the guide and the sticky. You'll understand how daft your question is after about the 2nd paragraph.

[Drei]

Does the clock reset if you stop working for someone? You are 1 2 3 months at home then you find another contract close to the previous ie Bank and London Bridge.

[PerfectStorm]

24 month rule in London

Hi,

For those of you working in London what do you do for multiple roles in London? Do you distinguish between central,west, north etc. or stop claiming after 24 months?

PS - I understand the rules but curious how other people see it, especially those who live in London

Thanks

VC

I go by HMRC guidance - which says that a substantially different journey resets it, especially if the cost changes. So I'd count City, West end and Canary Wharf as different places as I'd take different routes to get there and wildly different prices (anything between £500-£1500 a year depending on whether overground or underground is used). Some routes are a direct tube, some involve a change, some involved mixed modes of transport.

But Bank and London Bridge for example I would count as the same, as they'd probably be the same cost, same time and near enough same location.

[LondonManc]

Having lived in the East End and switched gigs between Canary Wharf and Brentford, I can confirm that the two commutes are vastly different and the rented accommodation in the East End was ditched quickly!

[Drei]

So if your main London entry point is let's say Liverpool Street or London Bridge or Victoria yet the contracts are in completely different parts of London HMRC only looks at the entry point?

Liverpool Street then walking to Old Street is much different than Liverpool Street to Waterloo then walking for example, not to mention about 40 minutes extra.

The actual cost might be a little more confusing. If you get a train in from Chelmsford you would pay the train and the travel card cost however if you drove to the station at Zone 6 (a lot of people do this to save money) it would be just a 1 to 6 travel card and it will always be the same cost regardless if you traveled to Liverpool Street or Ruislip.

[SueEllen]

Given the fact I used to live in Kent (oh and buckinghamshire) I do know about London. Sadly from both directions I need to use the same train station so regardless of where I worked the journey was the same (walk to local station, get appropriate train to blackfriars or Victoria) then walk or catch the tube.

In all cases regardless of where in London I worked (city, west end, canary wharf) the base journey was the same.

My journeys aren't.

[eek]

Given the fact I used to live in Kent (oh and buckinghamshire) I do know about London. Sadly from both directions I need to use the same train station so regardless of where I worked the journey was the same (walk to local station, get appropriate train to blackfriars or Victoria) then walk or catch the tube.

In all cases regardless of where in London I worked (city, west end, canary wharf) the base journey was the same.

[Old Greg]

IIRC the determining factor is not the destination bu the journey. A few years ago, I moved contracts from:

1. Location in North London, journey 100 miles by car to train station 10 miles away, train to mainline station, tube to tube station (contract length 2 year 11 1/2 months - ahem)

to

2. Location in South Central London (about 8 miles away), journey 100 miles by walk to train station 200 yds away, train to different mainline station, train to tube station.

These were the easiest journeys to each destination, and Journey 2 was about 20% cheaper, so there could be no argument that I was swapping routes as a taxation convenience. My accountant advised that I should not claim Journey 2, but I did my own research and claimed as the journey was different, the cost was different and it was all necessary etc. etc.

[SueEllen]

This was the point I was making in my earlier post in this thread. 1 or 2 tube stations is doubtful agreed. However working from one end of London to another and taking a different (mainline) train into a different station is satisfactory. One of my previous accountants had taken this up with HMRC who confirmed this to be the case.

You, me and CP are on the same page with this one due to where we are based. The others questioning it live in smaller towns/cities.

[kaiser78]

Luckily London is bigger than that. So someone can work in Canary Wharf then the outskirts of London then Victoria meaning on each occasion their journey is different.

This was the point I was making in my earlier post in this thread. 1 or 2 tube stations is doubtful agreed. However working from one end of London to another and taking a different (mainline) train into a different station is satisfactory. One of my previous accountants had taken this up with HMRC who confirmed this to be the case.