Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 section 39

Duties in UK merely incidental to duties outside UK

Section 39 deals with the tax treatment of minor duties carried out in the UK by employees whose jobs are essentially performed overseas.

• The section applies where an employment is, in substance, one whose duties are performed outside the UK during a tax year
• Any duties performed in the UK that are merely incidental to the overseas duties are treated as if they were performed outside the UK
• This treatment can affect how earnings are allocated between UK and overseas duties for the purposes of the charging rules in Chapter 5 of Part 2
• The section does not apply to seafarers claiming the seafarers' earnings deduction, for which separate rules under sections 378 and 383 apply instead