Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 section 341

Travel at start or finish of overseas employment

Section 341 allows UK-resident employees working wholly overseas to claim a tax deduction for the cost of travelling from the UK to take up the employment, or returning to the UK when it ends.

• Employees whose duties are performed entirely outside the UK can deduct starting and finishing travel expenses from their earnings, provided they are UK resident
• Where the employer is a foreign employer, the employee must not be a qualifying new resident under the overseas income rules in order to claim the deduction
• If duties performed in the UK are merely incidental to the overseas duties, those UK duties are treated as performed outside the UK, preserving eligibility for the deduction
• Where travel is only partly attributable to taking up or leaving the employment, only the portion properly attributable to that purpose qualifies for deduction