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journey from East Kilbride to Perth is £34. Derek is entitled to relief for £34, being the full cost of the business travel. |
Emma is an engineer who works on installing machines at the premises of her employer’s various clients throughout the UK. Emma has no permanent workplace and attends each temporary workplace for a short period only. One week she travels between her home in Folkestone to work at an employer’s client’s premises in Falkirk, where she stays in a hotel for four nights and then returns to Folkestone. The cost of the Folkestone to Falkirk return journey is £130. The cost of four nights in the hotel plus meals is £300. Emma is entitled to relief for £430, being the full cost of her business travel. |
18A.2.5 Other Travel Rules: Exemptions from Benefits Code etc |
18A.2.5.1 Incidental Overnight Expenses |
ITEPA sections 240 and 241 (ex TA 1988, section 200A) provides a statutory exemption from liability to income tax for certain incidental overnight expenses. The broad effect is to exclude any charge on the expenses50 or reimbursemenst where the overnight accommodation costs associated with them would be allowable deductions under the various travel rules. A maximum of £5 per night is available for expenses in the UK and £10 elsewhere, but these limits may be varied by statutory instrument.51 The limits are spread over the period of absence rather than being applied to each night separately, but the effect of exceeding the maximum is that the whole sum becomes taxable. |
An allowable, incidental, overnight expense is one paid wholly and exclusively for the purpose of defraying, or of being used for defraying, any expense which is incidental being away from the usual place of abode during a |