Business travel

Conditions

• Genuine business journeys — to clients, suppliers, temporary work sites or business meetings — are allowable, including reasonable accommodation and meals when staying away overnight.
• Ordinary commuting between home and a permanent workplace is never allowable. For the self-employed the test is whether the journey is wholly and exclusively for the trade; regular, habitual travel to the same place can itself be treated like commuting and disallowed, even if you have a home office.
• For employees, directors and contractors, travel to a temporary workplace is allowable — but a workplace becomes permanent (so the travel becomes non-deductible commuting) once you have spent, or expect to spend, 40% or more of your working time there over a period lasting more than 24 months (the '24-month rule'). It runs on expectation, so a posting known from the outset to exceed 24 months never qualifies. (Source: GOV.UK booklet 490, chapter 3.)
• Where a trip mixes business with private time, such as a holiday, only the genuine business portion is allowable.

Common mistakes

• Claiming a commute as business travel.
• Including the private element of a trip that combined business with a holiday.

What to keep

• Tickets, booking confirmations and accommodation invoices.
• A note of the business purpose of each journey.

Real-world example

A sole trader travels by train to a two-day client workshop in another city and stays overnight. The fares and reasonable hotel cost are allowable as business travel.

Frequently asked

Related allowances