Mileage

[alexstanleyv50]

I know, a bit of an odd thing to pop up in the forum... but hey, you never know!

So I am currently questioning my employer over mileage expense claims. Let my give you the details:

I work for an organisation that has two sites. Site A and site B. I live exactly between A and B at home.

My "base" site is B. I am sometimes require to travel to A for training/meetings etc.

So I leave home and go directly to site A but do not claim as it is exactly the same as going from home to my base site B. Are you with me so far?

After I have done whatever it is at site A I then travel to my base site B, which I do claim for. After that I travel home, which again is my daily commute.

So on my expenses claim I tell my employer that I travelled from site A to site B and that there was no other travel to claim for. However, they are telling me that I need to tell them where I travelled from to get to site A, and then where I went to after my journey from site A to my base site B. Stay with me....

Now that stinks of "big brother"... Why does my employer need to know where I travelled from (whether that be from a friends house, my house or a cheesy hotel...) to get to site A to start work, and why do they need to know where I went to when I finished work?????

I have searched and searched the rules and regs from HMRC and have been asking my employer to provide the information that requires me to answer their questions but its like drawing blood from a stone.

So, if you're still with me, what information do you provide to your employer when claiming mileage, or do you know what the rules are that are laid down by HMRC?

Ta.....

[Anadinolin]

I have to declare all of my mileage from home to site a/site b/site c of the internal organisation that i work for including travel from a-b-c.

however in my expenses claims i do not have to state any diversions unless mileage is unrealistic which is down to the discretion of my employer/line manager.

do you get personal use on your company vehicle?

If i was traveling from a hotel to office a-b or c after a personal venture/journey i have to put down the personal mileage less the distance from my place of residence.

hope this helps a little better?

[DaveNP]

This sounds a bit like their system cannot cope with you only travelling in one direction. You've taken a reasonable approach which is to only claim the mileage which exceeds your regular commute, but looked at from another angle they might seem to be paying you money for an illogical journey as they only pay one way, if an accountant looked at it they might ask why you didn't claim for the return trip (as most people would) and therefore was the trip you were paid for a real one or a fiddle? HMRC would probably be keener that you were only receiving compensation for mileage in excess of your regular commute. From experience in a few companies you may be up against the fact that the person processing your claim has no idea how the system is supposed to work and just has to fill boxes on the computer screen and the person who does now how it works can't be bothered with the detail of an individual claim. Thinking laterally, could you put in a mileage claim from home to A and A to home (even if you do continue your journey to B and back), which would give you the same recompense and satisfy the 'system'?

[Vainona70]

The HMRC will need satisfying that home to normal base mileage is not being reimbursed by your employer, as that element would be subject to income tax. The claims you are making should be acceptable to both your employer & the HMRC.

[Backhill1]

You are eligible to claim legitimate Buisness mileage in relation to your work.

So forget your home as in this case is irelevent (with regards hmrc).

A legitimate claim would be drive to base / place of work and claim to and from normal place of work so your effective return trip from depot a to b.

This should be based on postcode / postcode ( I use google maps).

Technically you could claim this and leave from your house etc as requierd provided you do not claim more than the legitimate point to point distance.

Hmrc are not interested in odometers etc only legitimacy of claims which you have to confirm are true and correct ( open to fraud etc).

This is my understanding and my accountants and how I have been claiming for many years. I am home based so much easier as I can claim all mileage in connection with Buisness.

FYI if your company pays less than the maximum permissible you can claim the difference from hmrc and is normally paid in the form of a cheque for the first year and can be backdated also so might be a tidy sum if its built up over a few years.

[Becks]

Is this done in your privately owned vehicle or a company car?

If your own, then all that should matter to your employer is your business mileage. What you do with your car beyond should be of no concern to them.

[Forrest]

The way this claim would work on my employer's system is that I would put the exact details of my journey - in your case home -> site_A -> base. Any journey with start point home has home-to-base mileage automatically deducted by the system. Likewise, if you were to go somewhere on business and then straight home afterwards base-to-home mileage would be deducted. Our system uses post codes and route calculations but also allows for detour miles to be entered manually if we get lost. I work for a large public-sector employer, so I guess they abide by HMRC rules.