| Employment Income: Deductions and Expenses |
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qualifying absence from home.52 An absence from home qualifies if it is a continuous period throughout which the employee is obliged to stay away from his usual place of abode—now incisively rewritten as ’the place where the employee normally lives throughout the period—and during which he has at least one overnight stay away from that place. In addition, there must be no overnight stay at a place other than a place the expenses of travelling to which are deductible expenses which would be deductible if they had been incurred. |
18A.2.5.2 Car Parking |
The provision of car parking facilities53 (section 197A) is also excluded from various heads of charge. The reason for this apparently strict rule is that an earlier attempt to charge such benefits was found to be unworkable. (See §15.1.1). |
18A.2.5.3 Miscellaneous—Official Travel |
The legislation contains exceptions for leave travel facilities for the armed forces (ITEPA section 296, ex TA 1988, section 197) and for incidental benefits to holders of certain public offices (section 295, ex section 200AA). Special rules apply to allowances for MPs,54 which have now been extended to the costs of visits to EC institutions in Brussels, Luxembourg or Strasbourg.55 The rules have also now been extended to members of the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly.56 |
18A.2.6 Employer Assistance with Travel to and During Work |
FA 1999 introduces five provisions to prevent the tax system interfering with environmentally sensible ideas on the part of employers. By giving relief for the costs of travel to work as well as during work these rules represent a major change of theory. |