16 Jun 2017

A question about : Can you claim TAX back on Home to Duty ?

I was wondering if any one could help me as i commute daily to work and its a total 170 mile round trip, although i only get the first 50 mile each way.

I heard a rumour that i can or could claim the tax back on fuel ?
Has anyone out there done this or is it possible and if so how ?

Many thanks

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Best answers:

  • Hi,
    Im unsure, HTD has been around for years. I guess this is one of them things, the same as the uniform tax allowance that is only paid to officers.
  • You can claim back tax on the difference that the MOD pay in mileage allowance and what the HMR&C mileage rate is, so if MOD pays 35p per mile and the HMR&C is 40p then you can put in a claim for the difference. You do need to provide proof but you can use a printout of your travel claims as evidence.
    However there are some exclusions including H to D and leave travel. There is an explanation here.
    So for almost every duty journey that you do in your own car you can claim the difference. Its about time this was promulgated to all personnel it doesn't come out of any unit budget its what you are owed by the tax man.
  • Many thanks
    cheers
  • It is true you can claim the tax back on the difference on what MOD pay per mile and what the thieves at the tax office allow. It is approx 3p per mile. The good news is that you can claim back for the previous 6 years
    Quote:
  • Sorry should have said it calculates at approx 3p per mile that you can claim. so on 50miles it is Ј1.50. I have claimed once for the 6 previous years and will do so again next year for the 5 past years.
    Quote:
  • Thats good news, and i cover 81 mile each day..
    Unsure what the mileage rate i receive for this, though in the pay slip it says just under £300, with a contribution of over £80 for me.
    Which forms would you need to submit to claim this.
  • Guys please don't get excited - many of you are reading what you want to hear and that is the - you can reclaim bit! Melipona got it correct first time in his exclusions line and the link to the IR web repeated here:
    "However there are some exclusions including H to D and leave travel. There is an explanation here."
    In short all those claiming home-to-duty irrespective of mileage cannot claim tax relief since tax relief is not valid on daily commutes.
    The good news is all those times you have to take your own car to duty mtgs/ trips etc when MT either say they have no vehicles or you opt to tkae your own motor - they all count. The military used to have a nifty ability to print off all your mileage claims on a SPA form 5657 which allowed you to highlight the valid journeys for your calculations - now sadly with JPA that appears to be no longer available and it becomes more ardous to keep the necessary records.
    The Tax form you need was when I last did this without a full tax return - a P87 Expenses Claim - there is a different form for each tax year but if you ring the helpline on 0845 300 3949 they will advise you and send you the forms relevant to you. There are also some leaflets that explain the 'business travel' tax regs - again it may be a dated code but IR124 was the 'using your own vehicle for work' one which I thought most relevant.
    Hope this all helps.
  • You can only claim back the tax on the difference between the rate paid and and the 40p Govt level. You cannot claim the tax back on leave or HTD journeys. The other gotcha is for duty journeys other than HTD you must be insured for occasional business use, SDP and commuting to your normal place of work is not sufficient. This is not a snag if your insurance company will do this without charging you extra, mine won't. If you claim for a duty journey and it is subsequently audited and you cannot prove you were insured for business use they will take the money back off you! Therefore if I cannot get an MT vehicle or cannot use public transport, I cannot go, I will not use my private vehicle for duty journeys.
  • Dear All,
    I'd once again be grateful of any advice on the following.
    I am in receipt of Get You Home (GYH) each month as I work some considerable distance from my family home.
    I am led to believe I can claim back some Tax as a result of being paid GYH.
    I must admit I don't truly understand this nor the way to claim it back either.
    Are there any references in any documents I could read that would shed any light on this subject?
    Most people I have spoken to have heard about it, but no one can tell me exactly how it works or, more importantly, how to claim it.
    Can anyone on this forum please help?
    Many thanks.
  • Hi Guido, ive merged your thread for a better responce.
    Welcome to the forum.
    Regards,
    AliasOmega

    MOVING THREADS FOR BETTER RESPONSES
    Hi, Martin's asked me to post this in these circumstances: I've asked Board Guides to move threads if they'll receive a better response elsewhere(please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email abuse@moneysavingexpert.com.
  • Further to my last - here is the link to the relevant IR webpage:
    https://www.hmrc.gov.uk/incometax/relief-mileage.htm
  • Sorry to be really thick here but my OH has commuted to work for the last 2 years, 55 miles there, 55 miles back. He has received Home to Duty for 18 months, apparently he wasn't able to claim for the first six months as we bought our house a year in to his posting with that particular regiment. He's now posted again and his daily commute is around 60 miles there and 60 miles back. He has been at his new Regiment for 3 weeks. On his pay slip for the end of July he had a GYH payment, which could have been for a 7 week course he did in Farnborough rather than the HTD.
    So can he claim the diffference in the rate paid and theGovernment level?
    I am sorry to have to ask again but as I said at the beginning I am really thick with stuff like this!
    Kind regards
    Pud x
  • Thanks VivS, there are so many things you can claim for and so many you can't it gets so confusing. My OH is not a claimer, despite my beft yorkshire efforts on him, so we are not always aware until something pops up on here!
    Kind regards
    Pud x
  • Several people have commented above that one cannot claim tax back on home to duty travel, and the link to the IR site implies the same. However: I have a collegue, with a letter from the Inland Revenue, which states that as long as one is a forces quarter, and expecting to stay there for 2 years or less (ie a normal posting, in the army at least), then it is regarded as a temporary place of living, and tax can be reclaimed. On this basis she has successfully claimed tax relief for at least 3 years (I think she said, it might be longer - certainly for her past 2 postings). I have not seen the letter itself, but she provided me with a copy of last year's tax form so that I could see the wording she used then (and is re-using this year also).
    "Archie"
  • This post is great, thanks everyone for the info as I have already posted this question on another board a few weeks ago.
    I too travel to and from work on a weekly basis though and I get GYH. I drive from my married quarter in plymouth to the base in Portsmouth and only get Ј180/month.
    I do know of people who have also managed to get away with claiming their money back and really just want to see if their claim was luck, or are we all eligible.
    Hope we can sort this out. I think a phone call to the IR is the way forward.
    Thanks again
  • As per my earlier post, I know people who have done this in the past and received a lot of money from the Taxman. I'd really like to know EXACTLY how to claim. If anyone knows, and can put it on here in a Step-by-Step way, I think you'd be helping many of us who are not entirely sure how to do it.
    Thanks again to everyone who has helped up to now.
  • thanks again.
    With regards to the proof of travel. Do they ask for that or do we just send it to them anyway. I have a credit card statment that has all my proof on it.
    Hope we can all do this.
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