Travel reimbursement - is it compulsory?

[sedky]

A friend recently agreed to do some work up north for her company. She has chosen to return home (a four hour drive) every weekend and asked me whether the company is obliged to pay for her travel expenses. They are paying for a serviced apartment near the job site but not for mileage.

Can anyone clarify what the regulations are around this?

[The Y-man]

I would have thought it unlikely, as the ATO views travel between home and a workplace as personal.

Different issue if she was travelling between 2 offices, in which case even if the company did not reimburse, she is likely to be able to make a tax claim on it.

The Y-man

[Job Media]

I don't think the OPs question is about taxation, I got the impression sedky was asking if the employer was obliged to pay for the employee to travel home at weekends.

Given that the employer is providing accommodation they are obviously acknowledging that this is a special circumstance and the employee is not normally expected to travel 4 hours to and from work.

I was once in a similar situation, although there were no serviced apartments near where I was working away from home, so my employer paid for me to stay in a hotel. They paid for me to travel home by train or car every second weekend (about 300km), although the hotel room was booked continuously so I didn't have to move all my stuff out every second weekend. I also had an allowance for an evening meal. I wouldn't expect this in a serviced apartment if it had a kitchen, nevertheless I would expect some living away from home allowance, because it is inevitably more expensive to do so. I should stress though that this was a long term posting away from home and I knew from the outset what I was signing up to, and it wasn't in the middle of nowhere!

Unfortunately I don't know of any legislation that covers this situation (that doesn't mean there isn't any!). It may simply be down to negotiation with the employer, but unless your friend's employment contract says she will be required to live and work four hours from home she should be in a reasonably strong position.

If this situation is unexpected then paying for her to travel home at weekends is not unreasonable to my mind, because being away from home for extended periods can start to impact on personal relationships very quickly. This of course is just my personal opinion having experienced a similar situation.

BTW, reimbursement for usage of a personal car for work use should be at rate per km, which includes cost of wear and tear, servicing costs & oil - it's not just a matter of fuel costs. Also, your friend should check with her car insurer to make sure she is covered for what is essentially work use of her vehicle.

The ATO does have guidelines for this sort of thing, although from a taxation perspective. This one is a little out of date but it will be a reasonable indicator TD 2008/18 - Income tax: what are the reasonable travel and overtime meal allowance expense amounts for 2008-2009? (As at 2 July 2008)

Try this Google search for similar links

The ATO also sets out limits for tax deductions for personal usage of your car for work use. This is for when you are not reimbursed, by the employer, but clearly this is what the ATO considers reasonable so the same rates can probably be used for reimbursement.

I hope this helps.