SE34020 – Foreign travel rules: duties performed wholly abroad - employee’s initial and terminal journeys
Section 193 (2) and (3) ICTA 1988
Summary
This page is concerned with the first and last journeys of an employee who works wholly abroad.
Conditions
The employee must:
- Be resident and ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom (see SE34010)
- Hold an office or employment
- The duties of the office or employment are performed wholly outside the United Kingdom (see SE34010 for the relevance of “merely incidental duties”).
If the emoluments from the employment are “foreign emoluments” (see SE40031) no deduction is allowed.
Nature of the deduction
Allow as a deduction from the emoluments of the overseas employment, the cost of the employee's
- travel from any place in the United Kingdom to take up the overseas employment, and
- return to any place in the United Kingdom on its termination.
If the travel is partly for another purpose (for example, a holiday) limit the deduction to the amount properly attributable to the business purpose. Apportionment is a matter for agreement and will depend on the facts.
Interim return visits to the United Kingdom
The deduction for interim return visits to the United Kingdom for an employee in these circumstances is provided by different legislation and has different conditions to the deduction for initial and final journeys (see SE34025).
