Temporary workplace travel expenses question:

Thursday January 2018

I am an IT consultant and I provide my services via my limited company, which operates outside the IR35 rules. I started working on my current contract just over two years ago – although when I started, I did not know that it would last this long. Do the temporary work place rules on allowable expenses apply in this situation?

A. There are a number of circumstances where, even though an employee attends a workplace to perform a task of limited duration or for some other temporary purpose, it will still be treated as a permanent workplace. This will be the case where the 24-month or fixed term appointment rules apply or where the workplace is a depot or base.

The 24-month rule prevents a workplace being a temporary workplace where an employee attends it in the course of a period of continuous work which lasts, or is likely to last, more than 24 months.

HMRC’s guidance on employee travel (Booklet 490) states (at section 3.21):

Where it is expected that the employee will attend a workplace to perform a task of limited duration or for some other temporary purpose for a period of less than 24 months, the workplace will be a temporary workplace from the outset.

However, if at a later date circumstances change and the employee is required to attend the workplace for a period that extends beyond 24 months, it will cease being a temporary workplace from the date that the expectation changed.

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