Introduction

In a move to restrict the ability of those working through intermediaries to claim travel and subsistence expenses unavailable to ordinary employees, the Government introduced specific rules for travel and subsistence for intermediaries from 6 April 2016.

Background

The costs of travel and subsistence are an allowable deduction for employees only if the travel is to or from a place other than the employee’s permanent workplace in order for the employee to perform the duties of his employment. The costs of commuting between the employee’s home and a permanent workplace are not deductible (see the Travel expenses and Commuting expenses guidance notes).

Before introduction of these rules, workers providing their services through an intermediary, such as a personal services company (PSC) or an umbrella company, could treat the locations at which they carried out separate engagements as temporary workplaces of their employment under that intermediary. This then enabled such workers to claim tax relief for costs of commuting between home and their workplace unless, an engagement was more than two years in duration or