EIM31625 - The general rule for employees’ expenses: recent changes

In recent years there have been a number of changes to the rules for employees’ expenses. Changes were made

• in 1998 to bring in new rules for employee travel
• in 2002 to bring in mileage allowance relief and
• in 2003 with the replacement of all of the existing legislation on employment income by ITEPA 2003.

All of these changes made small adjustments to the general rule for employees’ expenses but they did not change its meaning. The rule is applied in the same way for periods before and after these changes.

In each change many of the same words and phrases have been retained in the rewritten legislation so that the guidance given by the Courts to interpret the legislation still applies. The advice on interpreting the general rule on employees’ expenses at EIM31630 applies to all of the old and the new versions of the legislation.