GYM Tax Relief (again!)

[Grimweasel]

Hi All,

Navy mate of mine has been successfully claiming back tax relief on GYH(M) mileage (difference between 20p MoD paid and 45p HRMC allowance).

The rules seem a little 'grey', however. It seems that if your posting is for less than 2 years then it is classed as a 'temporary workplace' - and therefore one could legally claim GYM tax relief going back for 4 years?

My concerns are that GYH(M) is paid tax free in the first place(Chap 5 JSP 752) and also GYM doesn't necessarily mean that you have used a car that month for travel - one could have used the train, so how could you claim tax relief on mileage you haven't done?

Any advice from those that have successfully claimed appreciated. Plus, I don't want to bother if the whole thing is a little 'dicey'!

[The_Agent]

Interesting. GHY is a benefit. Joe public doesn't get it. Therefore claiming the tax back seems suspect to me.

My wife used to commute an hour to work everyday. She paid for that herself, and it wasn't tax deductible. Getting to your normal place of work is just part of the daily grind.

The 2 year thing though: if you are at a temporary place of work (defined as expected to be and actually happens to be <24 months), then the cost of travelling from your accommodation to the temporary place of work IS tax deductible.

HMRC has a worked example of a guy who goes to a conference for a month and stays in a hotel 20 miles away or so. He can rightfully claim the tax back for the journeys between while he is there at 45p per mile.

For us, that means if you were on a 1 year training course somewhere, then getting from your accommodation to the place of the course is tax deductible. Amazingly, this even covers cycling (8p per mile, is it?). So cycling from the mess to your office 1mile per day for a few months may add up to something!

If you are expecting a job to last <24 months, but it turn out to be longer, then it is no longer classed as temporary. Not exactly sure what happens there...?

In sum, any duty journey JPA claims where you are paid 20p per mile, you can claim the tax back on the remaining 25p per mile. If you are at a temporary place of work (flying training is a good one for that), then even travelling from the mess to work is tax deductible. I know many people who have claimed this back, even 6 years historically.

The bog standard Get You Home doesn't apply, I think? The tax deductible bit is only from accommodation to place of work, not where you have chose to buy your home?

That being said, if HMRC give you the dosh and don't realise anything is wrong for 6/7 years, you're laughing. At worst, they will claim the money back if they are not happy. I guess?

[The_Agent]

more here:

EIM32080 - Travel expenses: travel for necessary attendance: definitions: temporary workplace: limited duration, the 24 month rule (http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/eimanual/eim32080.htm)

"Journey to work" is tax deductible, not journey to your house...

[Sloppy Link]

The kicker is the allowance is paid regardless of how many times or how you undertake the journey therefore you should not be entitled to the tax adjustment, this only applies for journeys claimed for as a journey, ie from your RWA or Work Address that you use your private car to attend a different place of duty ie, to attend a meeting at a different duty station, to attend a course, the journey to and from,a whilst there, if the course is of the qualifying duration and distance you would then get adjusted GYH(M) or similar. Remember GYH(M) is the rate it is because you are paid it 365 days a year regardless of leave/weekends etc, this why the rate is so low. An eagle eyed HMRC would not get the joke and I suspect you pal was simply lucky dealing with someone who was not au fait with the way GYH(M) is designed and administered.

[The Old Fat One]

That being said, if HMRC give you the dosh and don't realise anything is wrong for 6/7 years, you're laughing. At worst, they will claim the money back if they are not happy. I guess?

indeed...but "at worst" is a pain in the butt since you will likely be required to produce ALL your paperwork down to the last detail for ALL of your claims. And the HMRC compliance dudes have the power of god, so a stroppy letter or two will have f**l all effect.

Been there, done that.

[The Old Fat One]

That being said, if HMRC give you the dosh and don't realise anything is wrong for 6/7 years, you're laughing. At worst, they will claim the money back if they are not happy. I guess?

indeed...but "at worst" is a pain in the butt since you will likely be required to produce ALL your paperwork down to the last detail for ALL of your claims. And the HMRC compliance dudes have the power of god, so a stroppy letter or two will have f**l all effect.

Been there, done that, got the teeshirt...and I never claimed GYH. Mine mishap was a £10 medical trip!!

[BEagle]

In this day and age, it's probably best to STFU about potentially dubious tax claims on a public forum.

HM Armed Forces are, compared to most civilians (not trotters-in-the-trough MPs though), quite well paid nowadays. Yes, you are!!

[WildRover]

Totally agree with Beagle. Not the place to discus.:=

Like the abbreviation STFU! :)

[Pontius Navigator]

Look at the civilian equivalent.

Joe Bloggs works in London on a short term contract but lives in Manchester.

He travels to London on Monday and back on Friday.

He would expect to claim the return journey each week.

Now, if he travelled by car and his company paid an allowance of 20p/m then he would be in the same 25p tax relief bracket.

Now let us consider if he actually travelled daily but his company only paid one return journey per week. He could claim the 25p/m Monday and Friday and 45p/m for all other journeys.

However supposed he travels by train? What can he claim? If the cost of his return ticket is, say, £100 but his company only reimburses £50 then he claims £50 for tax relief. No nonsense with mileage equivalent claims.

Suppose that travel home was monthly and not weekly - same difference.

However where he works at A, lives at B, and for GYH(M) has a home at C, then I would not expect the A-C journey to be admissible.

Keep a diary, bank the profit, and be prepared to argue your case.

[Grimweasel]

Thanks All,

Spoke with an ex-OC Accnts and lots of people are claiming. You can even get relief on food and accm charges for temporary duty of less than 2 years!!

[Pontius Navigator]

Grim, the secret is to think like a civilian and not a serviceman.

Food could be tricky. Should you try to claim for mess food, which is cheap by open market standards, then you might face additional tax for benefit in kind.

OTOH if you have an open market meal on duty, in a hotel say, and the cost is more than your subsistence allowance then you can claim the difference.

Accommodation I think would be treated the same way should you me in SSSA and pay more than the allowance.

Another claim, often overlooked, is the cost of uniforms. An officer's salary reduction for uniform maintenance covers the replacement of all his working dress over a 5 year cycle; it does not cover extraordinary expenditure. That might be the Bates Cap, Church shoes, Dent's glove, a new No 1, 5 and 6. Keep receipts and claim.

If you are going outside Europe you can even save VAT if you have stuff posted to you at your overseas unit.

[zedder]

Refund of Additional Employment Mileage Expenses

Dear Sir/Madam,
Please find attached 2 completed forms P87 with regard tax relief for mileage expenses I believe are due to me as a result of my current employment with the Royal Air Force. I did speak to your helpline in mid-January to double-check my entitlement to such tax relief for mileage expenses prior to submitting these forms. During that conversation I did query as to whether a Self-Assessment Tax Return was required, but was told that the use of the P87 was preferable.

In the past I incurred very little mileage on my personal vehicle as a result of my employment with the Royal Air Force; hence the lack of previous claims. Lately this has not been the case for the following reasons:

1. I was temporarily seconded from my current unit of RAF Kinloss to work for the European Union Naval Force Headquarters Northwood.
2. I have been receiving fast-track treatment for an injured knee with a view to the treatment being complete before I exit the Royal Air Force.
3. I have commenced Resettlement activities that are not always at my current unit of RAF Kinloss.

During my time at Northwood as detailed above, I was entitled to claim a Get You Home (Mileage) allowance from the Royal Air Force. This allowance is calculated based on the distance between current Unit and detached location. The allowance is capped at 530 miles (whereas RAF Kinloss to RAF Northwood is 575 miles), is based on 25p/mile, and is intended to fund travel to your family home every other week. The allowance actually paid was £11.72/day. Because of my overseas travel commitments as part of the European Union job, my travel home was not actually every other week, so in the attached spreadsheet I have listed the weekends that I actually travelled. Given the distance involved, I generally did not do the journey by car (other than when I returned home for periods of annual leave) and hence the travel method is identified. However, my understanding is that it is allowable to travel by car + air travel (due to the quicker speed) but still claim the additional mileage allowance as if the journey had been by car.

On the attached form P87s you will see that I have claimed the 45 miles extra each way that sit outside the maximum mileage covered by the RAF Get You Home (Mileage) scheme. I have done this because I am not sure if the 530 miles is an HMRC imposed limit or an MoD limit. If not an HMRC limit, I believe it would be acceptable to claim 40p/mile (Yr to 5 Apr 11) and 45p/mile (Yr to 5 Apr 12) for the 90 mile difference (per journey) between what the Royal Air Force gives as an allowance and the actual mileage. Also since the maximum limit of being able to claim 10,000 business miles on my private vehicle applies at 45p/mile for the Yr to 5 Apr 12, on the form for that year I have limited the claim to 10,000 miles where I effectively claim the extra 20p/mile, but I have also claimed the 90 mile differences at 25p/mile since I received no allowance from the RAF for that mileage.

The stint at EU NAVFOR was 6 months. I got the tax relief for all of the journeys I claimed, even the journeys where I drove to Heathrow or Luton and flew from there. I assume you are still limited to claiming a maximum of 10000 miles per annum at the 45p/mile rate.