RFIG20750 - Statutory Residence Test (SRT): Days spent in the UK: Travel either to or from a temporary workplace
Source: gov.uk (2025-04-07)


If an individual:
- works full-time overseas
- permanent workplace is overseas
- occasionally travels to a temporary workplace in the UK
the cost of travelling between their workplace overseas and the temporary workplace in the UK is a tax deductible expense, and so the time spent travelling is treated as time spent working.

Example 1

Maalav is working overseas, he has to travel to the UK for a business meeting in London, (the place of the business meeting is a temporary workplace), arranged for Monday morning ay 9am. The cost of the journey would have been deductible for tax purposes had he met it himself.

Maalav flies to the UK on Sunday evening. His disembarks his plane at 6am on Monday at Heathrow, after clearing immigration and customs leaves the terminal at 7.30am. Maalav travels directly to his business meeting arriving there at 8.45am. The meeting lasts for 2 hours, after which he returns to the airport for a return flight the same day.

The time spent travelling from overseas up to the point of disembarkation at Heathrow counts as work done overseas. Time spent travelling from disembarkation at Heathrow to the place of his business meeting counts as work done in the UK; as does the duration of the meeting and the return journey to Heathrow. As Maalav worked for more than 3 hours in the UK on this day it is also a UK work day.

Example 2

Members of Maalav's extended family have continued to live in the UK, in Birmingham. So if instead, he had decided to visit them before his meeting. He arrives in the UK on Friday evening disembarking at Heathrow at 18.00, the time spent travelling from overseas up to the point of disembarkation counts as work done overseas.

The time spent travelling in the UK, from disembarking at Heathrow until he arrives at his relations family home in Birmingham is private travel. It is not tax deductible and so does not count as work done in the UK. As Maalav did not work in the UK on that day for more than 3 hours, the day is not a UK work day.

On Monday morning Maalav travels from Birmingham to London for his business meeting, the journey takes 2 hours. This journey is not substantially private travel and so the expenses of travel would be tax deductible and the 2 hours count as work done in the UK. Maalav's business meeting lasts 3 hours. His journey to Heathrow, which is business travel, and the time spent in the airport departure lounge, takes a further 2 hours 50 minutes; this is counted as work done in the UK. Maalav has worked for a total of 7 hours 50 minutes; as he has worked for more than 3 hours, Monday is a UK work day.

Being on-call or stand-by may count as time spent working depending on the conditions of an individual's employment and the nature of their duties.

Example 3

Paula works as an engineer and is contractually required to be on-call for 4 night a month, in addition to her normal full-time attendance. She is paid a retainer for those 4 nights, in addition to being paid for any work if she is called out. The 4 nights are counted as working time.

Example 4

Franek is a self-employed locksmith, who keeps his mobile phone switched on 24 hours a day to receive customer calls. For the purposes of calculating work time, Franek should only include the time spent carrying out his jobs and the related travelling time.