We’re asked this question so many time by our clients.

Can I claim travel costs in my self-assessment tax return?

The simple answer is that you can reclaim “business” travel.

It’s important to understand exactly what “business” travel means if you want to ensure that your return is submitted correctly, while ensuring you are being as tax efficient as possible.

Business Travel

Business travel is a journey specifically under taken for work purposes and doesn’tinclude daily commutes, leisure trips or holidays.

A point to be clear on here is that it doesn’t include for daily commutes. This means you can’t claim business millage to and from home of your standard place of works.

So,

• if your standard place of work is an office then you can’t claim for travelling costs between your home and the office.
• if you move from one site to another every day or are contracted to different sites then your standard place of work is different sites.

However,

• if you need to leave the office to visit a client or for another business related reason you can offset these costs on your self-assessment tax return.
• if your standard place of work is different sites and you have to leave site to attend a meeting somewhere else then you can claim the travel costs to and from that site in order to attend the meeting.

If you’re registered in our Yearly Accounting Service we’ll be able to advise you on your personal circumstance to ensure you’re reclaiming all the business mileage you can.

Here’s a simplified list of business travel expenses you can and cannot claim for.

You can claim allowable business expenses for:

• Use of your personal car for business use @ 45p per mile, read more here.
• hire charges
• parking
• train, bus, air and taxi fares
• hotel rooms
• meals on overnight business trips
• company car

• vehicle insurance
• repairs and servicing
• fuel
• vehicle licence fees
• breakdown cover

You cannot claim for:

non-business driving or travel costs

• fines
• travel between home and work
• other non-business related costs

 If you want help with your tax return in April then please register your request here