Newsletter Autumn 2013

Going to work, or working on the go?

As a self-employed worker you may visit your customers to provide a service at their premises. This could apply to a range of professions such as hairdressers, cleaners, and gardeners but also medical professionals who work at private clinics. The miles you drive to reach each of your customers from your business base are used to calculate the amount of travel expenses you can claim in your business accounts.

That works out well if you keep good mileage records. But can the taxman still query your travel expenses? Recently he has argued that even where the business is based at your home, that home-office can't be treated as the starting point for travel when so much time is spent at particular customers' premises that they become effectively separate bases as well.

The taxman has agreed that travel between customers is allowable, so the mobile hairdresser or cleaner who travels to several customers each day should be able to claim the majority of their travel expenses. However, travel from the home-office to say one private clinic and back home again is in question.

This doesn't mean you should stop claiming the cost of travelling to customers, but to head off any challenge in the future, you should record details of every business-related journey: where it started, number of miles and the reason for the journey – who you were visiting. Using an estimate of your total business mileage for the year is no longer an acceptable method of calculating your travel expenses.

You should also make a note of the time you spend at your home-office on your business, such as preparing estimates, chasing debts or writing reports. We can help you set up a system to provide the necessary records.