Claiming mieage and subsistence as a contractor

kevin65

As a self employed contractor, who is operating as a limited company, I understand that mileage and subsistence (not exceeding current civil service rates) is allowed for business purposes. However, everyone seems to have a different opininion on whether the mileage from my base(where company is registered) and client(where contract work is undertaken) is allowable or not. Work is undertaken at my base as well as client base, but most of the work is at the client base.

Does any one know what the view of Revenue is on this?

smcgiff

How many clients have you got?

If it's just one (implied from your post) then the Revenue may consider you employed.

However, in general if your base is in one location and work in another then you can claim mileage (depends on size of car’s engine and amount of KMs in a year).

Revenue may take the view that are employed at the company where you work and are simply commuting to work, with occasional work from home entitlements.

kevin65

I have one main client at the moment, but I have done work for other clients, so am not dedicated to a single client. I am trying to get work from other clients, and some of my mileage is for business trips to potential clients.

smcgiff

Going by the above you're certainly entitled to treat it as such i.e. claim from home base. That's not to say Revenue may, after listening carefully to your reasons, disagree.

kevin65

Thanks for the feedback. I'm thinking of not claiming for main client contract mileage going forward, but limit claims to all other valid business trips to be on the safe side, e.g once off trips to potential clients, training/professional development, etc.

barneystinson

kevin65 wrote: »

Thanks for the feedback. I'm thinking of not claiming for main client contract mileage going forward, but limit claims to all other valid business trips to be on the safe side, e.g once off trips to potential clients, training/professional development, etc.

Revenue leaflet IT51 sets out the position: http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/it/leaflets/it51.html

It boils down to a question of whether you can prove that you carry out "substantive" work at your home base. If substantially all of your work is carried out at client premises then you would be on fairly shaky ground, but it boils down to interpretation really.

Make a call that you feel you can stand over, and whatever you do, makesure you keep proper records of the business mileage you decide to claim.

hinault

kevin65 wrote: »

As a self employed contractor, who is operating as a limited company, I understand that mileage and subsistence (not exceeding current civil service rates) is allowed for business purposes. However, everyone seems to have a different opininion on whether the mileage from my base(where company is registered) and client(where contract work is undertaken) is allowable or not. Work is undertaken at my base as well as client base, but most of the work is at the client base.

Does any one know what the view of Revenue is on this?

Claiming the mileage and subsistence rates applicable to the civil service is a given.

The issue here is whether or not that mileage and subsistence is claimable.

Having been audited by Revenue, they asked me to provide proof of my having travelled to various locations for expensed reimbursed by the business.
Luckily I had plenty of documentation which proved that I was where I claimed to be.

Things like petrol station receipts, train tickets, airline tickets, canteen receipts prove that I was where I claimed to be on given days.
It also helped that the clients signed off documentation proving that I'd been on site.
My advice would be to retain any/all documentation that you can to prove that you were on site.

kevin65

Thanks for feedback. I do keep a log of all trips, containing dates, locations, purpose, and supporting documentation where there it exists.