What business travel expenses are tax deductible?
Answered 11 March 2026
Here is a comprehensive answer on what business travel expenses are tax deductible for employees in the UK.
What the law says
The primary rules for deducting travel expenses from employment earnings are set out in ITEPA 2003, ss. 337–339:
1. Travel in the Performance of Duties (s. 337)
A deduction from earnings is allowed for travel expenses if:
- the employee is obliged to incur and pay them as holder of the employment, and
- the expenses are necessarily incurred on travelling in the performance of the duties of the employment.
2. Travel for Necessary Attendance (s. 338)
A deduction is also allowed if:
- the employee is obliged to incur and pay them as holder of the employment, and
- the expenses are attributable to the employee's necessary attendance at any place in the performance of the duties of the employment.
However, the following are explicitly excluded from relief under s. 338:
- Ordinary commuting — travel between the employee's home and a permanent workplace
- Private travel — travel between the employee's home and a place that is not a workplace, or between two places neither of which is a workplace
3. Key Definitions: Workplace and Permanent Workplace (s. 339)
- A "workplace" is a place at which the employee's attendance is necessary in the performance of the duties of the employment.
- A "permanent workplace" is a place the employee regularly attends in the performance of their duties and which is not a temporary workplace.
- A "temporary workplace" is a place attended for the purpose of performing a task of limited duration or for some other temporary purpose.
- A place is not a temporary workplace if the employee's attendance is in the course of a period of continuous work lasting more than 24 months, or comprising all or almost all of the period for which the employee is likely to hold the employment.
HMRC guidance / practice
HMRC summarises the two qualifying categories of deductible business travel as:
- Journeys employees have to make in the performance of their duties (travelling while doing the job, e.g. visiting clients); and
- Journeys to or from a place they have to attend in the performance of their duties — but not ordinary commuting or private travel.
HMRC confirms that ordinary commuting counts as private use and is not deductible — even if the employee is obliged to take a car home because they are on call.
For self-employed individuals, travel expenses are deductible if they would have been deductible when calculating the profits of the individual's trade.
A practical example illustrates the boundary: where an employee is reimbursed £500 for business travel and £300 for home-to-work travel, only the £500 business travel (plus allowable professional subscriptions) is deductible — the £300 home-to-work element is taxable as earnings because it is not incurred in the performance of duties or in travel to a temporary workplace.
Summary Table
| Type of Travel | Deductible? |
|---|---|
| Travel while performing duties (e.g. visiting clients) | ✅ Yes (s. 337) |
| Travel to a temporary workplace | ✅ Yes (s. 338) |
| Ordinary commuting (home ↔ permanent workplace) | ❌ No |
| Private travel | ❌ No |
| Travel to a place attended for more than 24 months (treated as permanent workplace) | ❌ No |
Citation sources
An employee (who for 2015/16 and earlier is not in an excluded employment (EIM20007)), is reimbursed the following expenditure. Expenditure Amount Business travelling £500 Home to work travelling £300 Allowable professional subscriptions £50 Total £850 The payment of home to work travelling costs is not allowable as they are not incurred in the performance of the duties or in travel to a temporary workplace. The employee’s tax liability will therefore include Item Amount Reimbursed home to work
Part 5 Employment income: deductions allowed from earnings Chapter 2 Deductions for employee’s expenses Travel expenses Travel for necessary attendance 338 1 A deduction from earnings is allowed for travel expenses if— a the employee is obliged to incur and pay them as holder of the employment, and b the expenses are attributable to the employee’s necessary attendance at any place in the performance of the duties of the employment. 2 Subsection (1) does not apply to the expenses of ordinary comm
Part 5 Employment income: deductions allowed from earnings Chapter 2 Deductions for employee’s expenses Travel expenses Meaning of “workplace” and “permanent workplace” 339 1 In this Part “ workplace ”, in relation to an employment, means a place at which the employee’s attendance is necessary in the performance of the duties of the employment. 2 In this Part “ permanent workplace ”, in relation to an employment, means a place which— a the employee regularly attends in the performance of the dut
It is important to understand what business travel means in the context of car benefits because private use means all use that is not business travel. Business travel means any travelling for which the expenses would be deductible under the travel rules in Part 5 Chapter 2 ITEPA 2003 if they were incurred by the employee. Broadly, this means travelling expenses that involve two types of business journey: journeys that employees have to make in the performance of their duties (see EIM32350 onward
Deductible travel expenses for tax purposes are those where the expenses would have been deductible when calculating: an individual's earnings from employment and the travel would have fallen under the following categories: the travel expenses were necessarily incurred in the performance of the duties of their employment the travel was required for necessary attendance in the performance of their duties of employment the travel was required for travel between group employments the travel was tra