Mileage Allowance

neuroticprincess

Hello

I am completing self assessment for an External Verifier and was wondering if their mileage can be claimed as an allowable expense. She travels to various organisations to meet with candidates so its not travel to a permanent place of work, she also works for a local college but is not based at the site of the college as she works from home, can she claim for trips to the college for meetings with her manager etc?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Monsoon

Yes, it sounds allowable to me.

neuroticprincess

Hi

Thanks for your reply.

Its actually my mums self assessment I am completing (and the first time I have attempted to complete one) having just spoken to her I am more confused. She is employed by the local college but they do not pay her mileage for the visits, just a salary. Can she claim this as an allowable expense or only claim allowable expenses for her self employed work?

Thanks again.

Monsoon

As an employee, she is allowed to receive 40p a mile up to the first 10k and 25p per mile thereafter. If she is employed, and travels because of work, and doesn't get paid mileage, or gets paid less than the approved rates, she can claim the difference between these rates and what she got paid (i.e in her case the full rates) against her income as an 'expense'. This is done via the Employment pages. If she got paid a flat 50p per mile, the extra she got paid over the allowance would be a taxable benefit and reported to her on form P11D.

The mileage for her self employment is calculated in the same way and is a motor expense on the self employed pages.

She sounds exactly like one of my clients, who also has employed and self employed income and is in the same industry. Don't confuse the two, treat them separately even though she's doing the same thing under 2 employment statuses. If it's anything like my client, she may be paid through local authorities who will probably move the self employed work into PAYE in due course.

andrewtdk

I agree with the travel to various sites but when you say she is employed by a local college does she always travel to this same college? If she has or plans to work at this same college for over 2 years it may be worth looking into whether travel to this place would be dissallowable.

The 24 month rule may not apply if you also work at different locations but it may be worth checking out just in case.

payrollpro

Hi everyone,

I don't think you have to worry about the 24 month rule as it applies only to temporary places of work. In this case it would appear that the "employee" is employed by the college but works from home, am I right?

The question is, does she work from home because the employer requires her to and it is a commonplace condition both in the college and in the general sense, or does she doe so because it is convenient to her and the college?

HMRC looks closely at such arrangements because travel from home to office is disallowed but travel from workplace to workplace isn't so there is value to being classified as a homeworker. The key will be what is in the terms and conditions, what the real working arrangement is and what other external verifiers do.

If she is genuinely a person whose workplace is primarily home then all her traveling is allowable. If she works from home for convenience then her first visit from home and her last one before returning home will be disallowed but the rest is ok.

As a self employed EV then she will be homebased and the normal rules apply. When her SA return is completed include the claim for traveling costs and it will be included in the computation because, as Monsoon says, the allowance is a statutory one and a claim can be made for relief where no travel payments are made.

I am not sure the local authorities will transfer her to PAYE unless they carry out a proper status check before doing so. Putting her on payroll will put them at risk of pension costs and sick pay etc so I would be doubtful about that. If she is a genuine EV working for a number of colleges then she satisfies the criteria for trading rather than employment.

Payrollpro