EIM34050 - Foreign travel rules: duties
performed wholly or partly abroad: travelling expenses of the
employee's family
Section 371 ITEPA 2003
Summary
This page is concerned with the travelling expenses of an
employee who works partly or wholly abroad.
Conditions
- The employee must be resident and
ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom (see
EIM34010) and
- the employee's taxable earnings must
include an amount in respect of:
- the provision of travel facilities for a journey
made by the employee's spouse, civil partner or child, or
- the reimbursement of expenses incurred by the
employee on such a journey.
- Other factors:the employee is absent from
the United Kingdom for a continuous period of at least 60 days for
the purpose of performing the duties of one or more employments
(see example
EIM34060 for details of the 60 days
rule)
- the journey is between a place in the
United Kingdom and a place outside the United Kingdom where such
duties are performed
- the employee's spouse, civil partner or
child is:
- accompanying the employee at the beginning of the
period of absence
- visiting the employee during that period, or
- returning to the United Kingdom after so
accompanying or visiting the employee.
Nature of the deduction
The deduction is equal to the amount included in the employee's
taxable earnings in respect of the travel facilities provided for
the journey or the reimbursed expenses of the journey. In most
cases, the employer will have provided the travel facilities or
reimbursed the expense. Allow the cost of up to:
- two outward journeys (from the United
Kingdom to the overseas workplace, see
EIM34070) and
- two inward journeys (from the overseas
workplace to the United Kingdom)
in any tax year by each member of the employee's family, if all
of the above conditions are satisfied.
Meaning of family
Family for this purpose includes:
- the employee's spouse
- the employee’s civil partner
- the employee's children. The term includes
any stepchild, adopted child or illegitimate child but not a child
over the age of 18 at the beginning of the outward journey.
Additional information
The deduction only covers the travel costs of the family. Once
the family arrives at the overseas workplace no deduction can be
given for their accommodation or subsistence. If the employer meets
the cost of the family's accommodation or subsistence the cost will
be taxable earnings of the employee.
