What travel and subsistence expenses can I claim?
Travel and subsistence expenses are common business costs, but the rules are not always straightforward.
A train ticket to visit a client may be allowable. A hotel stay for a business trip may be allowable. A meal while travelling for work may be allowable.
But travel between home and a normal workplace is usually not allowable, and personal costs should not be claimed just because they happened during a working day.
This guide explains the main principles.
What does travel and subsistence mean?
Travel costs usually include the cost of getting from one place to another for business.
This may include:
- Train fares
- Flights
- Taxis
- Bus or underground fares
- Mileage claims
- Parking
- Tolls
- Congestion charges
- Accommodation where an overnight stay is required
Subsistence usually means necessary costs linked to business travel, such as meals and reasonable incidental costs while travelling.
HMRC describes subsistence as including meals and other necessary costs of travelling, such as parking charges, tolls, congestion charges and business phone calls. You can check HMRC’s overview on the GOV.UK travel and subsistence expenses page.
The key question: is the journey for business?
The most important question is whether the journey is genuinely a business journey.
Business travel may include journeys to:
- Visit a client
- Attend a temporary workplace
- Visit a supplier
- Attend a business meeting
- Travel between work locations
- Attend business training
- Deliver goods or services
- Visit a professional adviser for business reasons
However, not every journey connected with work is allowable.
Travel between home and a normal workplace is usually ordinary commuting and is not normally tax deductible.
Ordinary commuting
Ordinary commuting means travel between your home and your regular place of work.
For employees and directors, HMRC’s guidance is clear that ordinary commuting and private travel do not qualify for tax relief. You can read more in HMRC’s ordinary commuting and private travel guidance.
This means that the following are usually not allowable:
- Travel from home to your regular office
- Travel from home to the same workplace every day
- Lunch bought near your normal workplace
- Parking at your normal workplace
- A hotel near your normal workplace for personal convenience
The fact that travel is necessary to get to work does not automatically make it a business expense for tax purposes.
Temporary workplaces
Travel to a temporary workplace may be allowable.
A temporary workplace is broadly somewhere you attend for a task of limited duration or for a temporary purpose.
For example, this may include:
- Visiting a client site for a short project
- Attending a temporary assignment
- Travelling to a one-off meeting
- Visiting another branch or work location for a short period
- Attending a training course away from your normal workplace
The rules can become complex where you attend the same place regularly.
HMRC’s guidance includes the 24 month rule. Broadly, a workplace may stop being temporary if attendance is expected to continue for more than 24 months. You can check HMRC’s detailed guidance on the temporary workplace 24 month rule.
Travel for sole traders
For sole traders, travel costs may be allowable if they are incurred wholly and exclusively for the business.
Common examples include:
- Travelling to visit customers
- Travelling to suppliers
- Travelling between jobs
- Travelling to a temporary work location
- Overnight travel for business purposes
However, a sole trader cannot simply claim all travel from home as business travel.
The position depends on the nature of the business, where the business is based, and whether the travel is part of the trade or equivalent to commuting.
HMRC’s business income manual confirms that overnight accommodation and reasonable overnight subsistence may be deductible where a business trip requires one or more nights away from home. You can read HMRC’s guidance on travel and subsistence for traders.
Travel for limited company directors and employees
For directors and employees, the company may reimburse qualifying business travel and subsistence costs.
This can include:
- Train fares
- Flights
- Taxis
- Mileage for business journeys
- Hotels for business trips
- Meals while travelling for business
- Parking and tolls on business journeys
Where the reimbursement is for qualifying business travel, it may be paid without creating an additional tax charge.
However, if the company pays or reimburses ordinary commuting or private travel, this may create a taxable benefit or payroll issue.
Mileage claims
If you use your own vehicle for business journeys, mileage can often be claimed using HMRC approved mileage rates.
For cars and vans, the approved mileage allowance is currently:
- 45p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles in the tax year
- 25p per mile for business miles over 10,000
Different rates apply for motorcycles and bicycles.
Mileage claims should be supported by records showing:
- Date of journey
- Start point
- Destination
- Business purpose
- Number of business miles
- Vehicle used
A rough estimate at the year end is not ideal. A simple mileage log is much better.
You can check the current rates on the GOV.UK travel mileage and fuel rates page.
Meals while travelling
Meals may be allowable where they are part of qualifying business travel.
For example, if you travel to another city for a client meeting and need to buy lunch while away, that may be a subsistence cost linked to business travel.
However, normal everyday meals are not usually allowable.
For example:
- Buying lunch near your normal workplace is usually not allowable
- Buying coffee during your normal working day is usually not allowable
- A meal at home is not allowable
- A meal that is mainly personal or social is not allowable
The meal needs to be linked to qualifying business travel, not simply to the fact that you were working.
Overnight accommodation
Hotel or accommodation costs may be allowable where an overnight stay is genuinely required for business travel.
For example:
- Staying overnight near a client site
- Staying near a conference or business event
- Staying away from home for a temporary work assignment
- Staying away due to business travel that cannot reasonably be completed in one day
Reasonable meals and incidental subsistence during the trip may also be allowable.
However, accommodation near a normal workplace, or accommodation used mainly for personal convenience, may not qualify.
Incidental costs
Some incidental costs linked to business travel may also be allowable.
These may include:
- Business parking
- Tolls
- Congestion charges
- Business phone calls while travelling
- Public transport to and from business meetings
- Reasonable Wi-Fi costs while travelling for work
The cost still needs to be linked to a qualifying business journey.
Parking fines and penalties
Parking costs for a business journey may be allowable.
Parking fines, speeding fines and other penalties are different.
Fines and penalties are usually not allowable business expenses, even if they were incurred during a business journey.
They should not be treated in the same way as normal travel costs.
Taxis
Taxi costs can be allowable if they relate to a qualifying business journey.
For example, a taxi from a train station to a client meeting may be allowable.
A taxi home after an ordinary working day is usually not allowable unless there are specific circumstances that change the treatment.
Again, the purpose of the journey matters.
Flights and international travel
Flights and international travel may be allowable where the trip is genuinely for business.
However, care is needed where there is a private element.
For example:
- Extending a business trip into a holiday
- Taking family members
- Combining personal visits with work meetings
- Upgrading travel for personal preference
- Staying longer than required for business
Where there is mixed business and private use, the private element should not be claimed.
In some cases, the cost may need to be apportioned.
Combining business and private travel
Many trips are not purely business or purely private.
For example, you may travel to London for a business meeting and stay for the weekend. Or you may visit family while travelling for a client project.
The business element may still be allowable if it can be clearly identified.
However, extra private costs should not be claimed.
Good records are important. Keep details of:
- The business purpose of the trip
- Dates of business activity
- Dates of private activity
- Extra costs caused by the private element
- Receipts and invoices
Client entertaining is different
Travel and subsistence should not be confused with client entertaining.
If you travel to visit a client, your own qualifying travel and subsistence may be allowable.
But if you take the client out for lunch or dinner, the client’s meal is usually treated as business entertaining.
Client entertaining is normally not deductible for tax and VAT recovery is usually blocked.
For example:
- Your train fare to visit the client may be allowable
- Your own meal while travelling may be allowable
- The client lunch may be treated as entertaining and disallowed
The distinction is important.
Working from home
Working from home does not automatically make every journey from home a business journey.
For employees and directors, HMRC may still treat travel from home to a regular workplace as ordinary commuting.
For sole traders, the position depends on the facts, including where the business is based and the nature of the work.
This is an area where assumptions can easily lead to incorrect claims.
Travel to training courses
Travel to training can be allowable where the training is relevant to the business or employment and the travel itself qualifies as business travel.
However, training costs and travel costs should be considered carefully.
For employees and directors, there are specific rules about work-related training.
For sole traders, the cost normally needs to be wholly and exclusively for the trade.
If the course has a personal or new-skills element, the tax treatment may be less straightforward.
Records to keep
For travel and subsistence claims, it is important to keep clear records.
Useful records include:
- Receipts and invoices
- Travel tickets
- Hotel invoices
- Mileage logs
- Parking receipts
- Details of who travelled
- Business purpose of the journey
- Meeting notes or calendar entries
- Evidence of temporary workplace arrangements
- Split between business and private elements where relevant
Good records make it much easier to support the claim later.
Common mistakes
Common mistakes include:
- Claiming ordinary commuting
- Claiming everyday lunches
- Claiming travel to a regular workplace
- Claiming private travel mixed with business travel
- Claiming client entertaining as subsistence
- Not keeping mileage logs
- Claiming parking fines as business costs
- Treating all journeys from home as business journeys
- Assuming a temporary workplace remains temporary indefinitely
- Not apportioning mixed trips
These mistakes can lead to incorrect tax returns, VAT errors and unexpected adjustments.
Practical checklist
Before claiming travel or subsistence, ask:
- What was the business purpose of the journey?
- Was the destination a regular workplace or temporary workplace?
- Was the journey ordinary commuting?
- Was there any private element?
- Was the meal linked to qualifying business travel?
- Was anyone else entertained?
- Are receipts available?
- Is there a mileage log?
- Does the cost relate to a sole trader, employee, director or company?
- Would the claim still make sense if HMRC reviewed it?
How CooperFaure can help
CooperFaure can help business owners, sole traders, directors and employers understand the correct treatment of travel and subsistence expenses.
We can support with:
- Reviewing expense claims
- Advising on business travel and commuting
- Checking temporary workplace treatment
- Reviewing mileage claims
- Advising on subsistence and accommodation
- Separating travel from entertaining
- Setting up bookkeeping categories
- Preparing Self Assessment and company tax returns
- Reviewing VAT treatment where relevant
If you are unsure whether a journey or subsistence cost can be claimed, it is better to check before the accounts or tax return are finalised.