Planning for my next contract which will likely run beyond April 2020. I understand that IR35 treats travel expenses to your contracted office location as a commute and therefore unpayable by my Ltd company. But how does it treat regular travel/accomodation to a secondary site? e.g. Office is 50 miles from Limited company address and therefore a commute but secondary office visits are a further 125 miles and therefore require 2 nights accomodation before return to office.
Question 1. Can I claim 250 miles + accommoation from my limited company per visit to secondary office?
Question 2. Does IR35 allow me to negotiate the company I contract to paying the 250miles + accomodation to myself preferably or to my limited company per visit to secondary office?
Answer 1. As a contractor operating outside of IR35 you are able to claim travel and subsistence expenses as well as accommodation costs should you be required to work at a secondary site as part of your contract. Post April 2020 the IR35 rules will not change, but the responsibility of your IR35 status, thus the liability of your status will change as this will now be determined by your engager (agency/end client). This does not mean that you will be automatically treated as inside IR35 or as an employee, so this way of claiming expenses should not necessarily change. The only reason as to why change will occur will be if you are subsequently deemed as inside IR35 or your working status is changed by your engager.
Answer 2. IR35 does not inhibit you from negotiating more money with your agency/end client to cover costs of travel, subsistence or accommodation. If you are operating outside of IR35 these costs can be claimed back anyway, but if you are operating inside of IR35 then there are no restrictions on you being able to negotiate commercially.
Saying you may still be outside IR35 i snot answering the question. What a rubbish article. Why bother publishing this if you’re not even going to answer the question?????
If no one knows what the hell is going to happen, then just say so!