Hi All,
I’m an Agency driver on PAYE so an employee of the agency but on a zero hours contract, so I am still paid holiday and Statutory Sick Pay and they pay my employers tax etc.
I was on HMRC’s site looking up how to claim tax back for uniform allowance and saw it mention about mileage and overnight fees and got me wondering……
Am I right in thinking in the eyes of HMRC, every shift I do at the agency is at a temporary place of work, since I only get the shift scheduled that week or the previous one and can be chopped and changed at short notice and the shifts are done at multiple companies at multiple locations?
Does anyone know what HMRC’s definition of “Temporary place of work” is in respect to claiming mileages back ?
You can see the wording from HMRC here: gov.uk/tax-relief-for-emplo … t-expenses
If so, does this mean I can claim back the mileage back for travelling to each agency’s client for every shift I do at the agency and any subsistence (Lunch/Dinner etc) costs I incur while on shift?
If this is possible, this has the potential to give the benefits of both PAYE and being LTD without the shortfalls of either in theory for all agency drivers on PAYE !
Has anyone tried claiming this back in the past and did/didn’t work out
I find it a lot easier just getting a higher paid job then the effort some people put in to reclaim tax. I mean the yearly uniform washing one is easy, you get a few years back dated and its then on your tax code forever without any extra effort.
I just laughed when I read the thread the other day by a full timer asking if he could claim tax on buying a new sat nav
On face value that does sound a bit far but looking at this, it seems plausible if he can prove it is for his job, so probably a truck type one with heights etc when reading this:
In most cases you can claim tax relief on the full cost of substantial equipment, for example a computer, you have to buy to do your work. This is because it qualifies for a type of capital allowance called annual investment allowance.
You’ll be needing to fill out a P87 form. Im pretty sure you claim the tax back from the mileage that you do to go to the “temporary” places of work. At first I thought it would be around 45p per mile, but it turned out to be the tax from that 45p.
If you know what you are doing it’s quite straightforward, but make a mistake and you screw your tax code up.
It may be worth speaking to a few local accountants and ask them how much will it be for them to do it. I did it in my old job before I started driving and it was about £80 per year for my local accountant to do it. They can go back for 4 years.
HMRC asked me for proof of the mileage so I had to provide wage slips, addresses etc to prove that I’d traveled the distances that I was claiming for.
When doing agency work at multiple sites it’s worth checking with your car insurance company as most policies state that cover for travelling to work is to your regular place of employment.
Some are saying that you may need some form of business use cover .
This was bought up on another motoring forum .
HMRC does not allow agency workers to claim tax relief for travel to each job:
Agency workers
3.40
Where a worker provides their services through an agency and their income is subject to
tax as employment income, and they generally attend only one workplace in respect of
each engagement that workplace will usually be a permanent workplace. Where nurses,
domestic workers and others provide their services through an agency and do a number
of different jobs on the same day, those workers may obtain tax relief for travel between
those jobs, but not for travel from home to the first job and to home from the last job on
each day.
Example
Beth is an accounts clerk who gets all her work through an employment agency. She rarely
takes a job which lasts more than 2 weeks. Beth always travels straight from home to work
at the premises of the employment agency’s client. She is not entitled to tax relief for any
of these journeys because each job is treated as a separate employment and so all her
journeys are ordinary commuting
You can’t claim the mileage anymore, HMRC put an end to that. The reasoning was that you are only employed for the duration of the placement therefore it cannot count as a temporary place of work under those rules. Anyone who is still claiming mileage is more than likely now doing so against HMRC rules and just because HMRC pay out doesn’t mean it is right and should they chase it up anyone doing it will have a big back tax bill.
You cannot claim overnight fees as that is paid as non-taxable expenses so you haven’t paid tax on it therefore there is nothing to claim. You can however claim for uniform (£60 a year), things like medicals, DCPC.
You used to be able to claim for mileage but HMRC clamped down on it. If your normal place of work is say Castleford and your asked to drive in your own vehicle to another start point say central Leeds then you can claim for the distance between Castleford and Leeds. In the old days we were told to get on our bikes to get work, that didn’t cost the treasury a penny but do the same in your car and they put a stop to it as it cost them in lost revenues.
