HMRC travel expenses: A UK guide for employees and employers

Understanding HMRC travel expenses can feel like navigating a maze of definitions and rules that somehow seem simple on paper but complex in practice. While most people know that travel for work can be claimed as an expense, the reality is that whether you qualify for travel expenses tax relief, and how much, depends on a handful of nuanced HMRC rules such as temporary workplace status, the 24-month rule, mileage allowance, subsistence, and employer reimbursements. Get the details wrong, and what looks like a legitimate claim may be challenged by HMRC during a compliance check.

This guide walks you through the practical application of those rules with clear examples and straightforward explanations, combining official HMRC definitions with everyday workplace scenarios so you can make sense of how the rules apply to employees and employers alike.

HMRC travel expenses: The foundation

At its core, HMRC allows tax relief on travel costs that are incurred “wholly, exclusively and necessarily” in performing your employment duties. That language is technical, but what it means in everyday terms is that travel must be unambiguously for work, not for commuting or general personal travel, to count as an expense.

Once travel meets this test, HMRC may allow tax-free reimbursement or relief on:

• Train, bus, and airfare to business locations
• Vehicle mileage when using your own car or van
• Hotel or other accommodations required for business travel
• Meals and subsistence while travelling for work
• Tolls, congestion charges, parking, and similar costs associated with business travel
   

What qualifies for business travel according to HMRC

Travel between your home and your permanent workplace is normally treated as commuting, and commuting costs are not eligible for tax relief or tax-free reimbursement. Understanding the difference between commuting and business travel is key and it revolves largely around the concept of temporary versus permanent workplaces.

Temporary workplace vs. Permanent workplace

HMRC defines a permanent workplace as a place you attend regularly to carry out your duties and where you are expected to remain for a substantial portion of your employment. If that location is your employer’s main office and you go there most days as part of your usual work pattern, then travel to and from home is considered ordinary commuting. Ordinary commuting is not an allowable travel expense.

For example, you live in Brighton and work five days a week at your employer’s Reading office. You have a long commute but cannot claim travel expenses for the train fare because that journey is treated as your regular commute to a permanent workplace.

A temporary workplace is a work location you attend for the purpose of performing a task of limited duration or for a temporary purpose. In other words, you go there to do a job that is expected to last only for a short time or under a temporary arrangement.

If a place qualifies as a temporary workplace, then travel from your home to that location, even if the journey resembles your normal commute, can be treated as business travel.

Consider this situation: You're based at your company’s Manchester office but are sent to a client’s site in Leeds for a six-month project. Because your attendance in Leeds is temporary in nature, travel between your home and the Leeds site can be claimed as a business travel expense.

The 24-month rule: When temporary becomes permanent

Perhaps the most complex part of HMRC’s travel expenses rules is the 24-month rule, used to determine whether a workplace remains temporary or becomes permanent. This rule exists to prevent indefinite expense claims for what essentially becomes a regular work location.

Under HMRC’s rule, a place is likely to stop being treated as temporary when both of these conditions are met:

• You spend (or are expected to spend) more than 40% of your working time at the workplace.
• You attend (or are expected to attend) that workplace for more than 24 months.
• This is often called the 40%/24 rule.

Here's a practical example: You're a graphic designer whose contract sends you to work at a client’s site in Bristol. Initially, it’s a 12-month secondment, and you spend most of your time there. For the first 12 months, your travel from home to the Bristol site qualifies as a business expense because it’s a temporary workplace. However, six months in, the assignment is extended and is now expected to last 30 months. At the point it becomes clear that you will be in Bristol for more than 24 months, and you spend more than 40% of your time there, it becomes a permanent workplace. From that moment on, travel costs are no longer claimable as a tax relief.

It’s important to note that if you know from the outset that a placement will exceed 24 months, the location may never qualify as temporary, even if the contract length is subject to change. Similarly, if an assignment expected to last longer than 24 months is cut short, you may only be entitled to relief for the period when it was reasonably expected to be under the 24-month threshold.

Ordinary commuting vs. Business travel

The dividing line between ordinary commuting and business travel for tax relief hinges on whether your employer’s main office or usual place of work is considered a permanent workplace.

• Travel from home to your permanent office is commuting, so it's not allowable.
• Travel between workplaces during the working day that are not your base can be allowable.
• Travel from home to a temporary workplace can be allowable until the 24-month and 40% conditions affect its status.

This means that context matters. Even journeys that look similar in distance or cost can have different tax treatments depending on the purpose and status of the workplace.

Mileage allowance in HMRC: Claiming your vehicle costs

If you use your own vehicle for business travel, HMRC allows employers to reimburse you at approved mileage rates without tax or National Insurance implications, provided the travel qualifies as business travel.

The current standard mileage rates are:
 

These are called Approved Mileage Allowance Payments (AMAPs) and cover fuel, wear and tear, insurance, and maintenance, so you cannot claim those costs separately. If your employer pays less than HMRC’s rates, you can claim tax relief on the difference.

For example, your employer pays less than the HMRC rate. Here, you drive 6,000 business miles during the tax year but your employer reimburses you at 35p per mile instead of HMRC’s approved rate of 45p. You can, therefore, claim tax relief on the 10p shortfall (10p × 6,000 = £600), which reduces your taxable income.

That relief is applied through your tax code adjustment or Self-Assessment, depending on how you file.

Subsistence and accommodation while travelling

Businesses and individuals can claim additional allowable costs such as meals, overnight accommodations, or associated travel costs (tolls, parking, congestion charges) when such costs arise directly out of qualifying business travel. These are often called subsistence expenses.

For example, if you're based in Liverpool and travel to London for a business meeting and need to stay overnight, the hotel bill and reasonable meal costs can be claimed as allowable travel expenses (either reimbursed tax-free by the employer or claimed as relief if paid personally).

However, ordinary expenses such as tea on the commute, travel card top-ups used for private journeys, or fines incurred while commuting do not qualify.

Employer reimbursements: When are they tax-free?

It’s not just employees who need to understand these rules; employers must be confident that reimbursed travel expenses are legitimately allowable, otherwise they risk including them in taxable pay.

If travel costs that are reimbursed under an expenses policy meet HMRC’s criteria for business travel (including temporary workplace and 24-month rules), then reimbursements can be made tax- and National Insurance-free and do not need to be reported on form P11D.

However, if expenses are paid for travel that does not qualify, such as commuting, employers should process such payments through payroll, applying PAYE, and reporting them appropriately.

A clear, written travel policy that reflects HMRC’s official definitions and regularly reviews assignments that may move from temporary to permanent status helps mitigate risk and confusion.

How to claim travel expenses as a tax relief

If your employer doesn’t reimburse qualifying travel costs, you can claim travel expenses as a tax relief directly from HMRC. Typically, this is done by submitting form P87 for employment expenses (if your claim is under £2,500) or using a Self-Assessment tax return if your overall tax affairs are already handled that way.

You will need to provide evidence such as mileage logs, receipts, and details of what was reimbursed, so keep accurate records of dates, locations, and business purposes.

Claims can generally be made for expenses incurred in the four tax years prior to the current one, meaning you can recover unclaimed reliefs if you didn’t make a claim at the time.

Conclusion: Practical clarity for real-world travel

Grasping HMRC travel expenses isn’t about memorising a few bullet-point lists, it’s about understanding how HMRC defines the purpose of travel and the status of workplaces. Whether you’re an employee thinking about claiming travel expenses as a tax relief, or an employer designing an expenses policy, the key is to apply HMRC’s rules, not just claim costs that “feel” like business travel.

By recognising the difference between commuting and business travel, applying the temporary workplace and 24-month rules, and using HMRC-approved mileage and subsistence rates correctly, you can navigate travel costs confidently and compliantly.

When in doubt, always consider whether the journey was necessary for your work duties, whether the destination qualifies as a temporary workplace under HMRC guidelines, and whether proper documentation exists to support the claim, because those are the tests HMRC uses when reviewing travel expense claims.