EIM35100 - Travelling expenses: employees working but not domiciled in the United Kingdom: meaning of travelling expenses

Sections 373 to 375 ITEPA 2003

The legislation relating to the rules described at EIM35030 and EIM35050 uses the following terms:

• expenses incurred on a journey and
• travel facilities provided for any journey.

They are not defined but they should all be read as covering both

• fares and
• subsistence expenditure while travelling.

Example

If an employee travels from Milan to the United Kingdom to work at the employer's office in London, Section 373 allows the travel costs of a journey

“from the country outside the United Kingdom in which the employee normally lives to a place in the United Kingdom in order to perform duties of the employment”.

If the individual travels by train, eats meals on the train and stays overnight in a hotel to break the journey, all of the following costs are allowable subject to all of the relevant conditions being satisfied:

• rail fare
• meal costs
• cost of hotel accommodation while on a journey.

The subsistence is part of the journey.

However, if the employer pays for the employee's hotel accommodation in London no deduction is possible under Section 373.