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If an employee visits a workplace exclusively to complete a task or for a short term, such workplace qualifies as a temporary workplace. However, if an employee attends a workplace regularly to execute a task of limited duration or another temporary purpose, it is a temporary workplace, not a permanent one.
Yet, another rule prevents a workplace from being classified as a temporary workplace if an employee attends it during a period of continuous work that lasts, or is likely to stay, longer than 24 months. The workplace will be a permanent one if this additional rule is applicable. This rule will not apply unless the workplace is temporary, as defined by s339(3) ITEPA 2003. A period of continuous work is defined as a period over which the extent of the employment is performed. To apply this rule, treat duties as performed significantly in any workplace where the employee spends 40% or more of their working time.
The test is whether or not the employee has spent, or is likely to spend, at least 40% of their working time at that specific workplace during a period that has lasted or is expected to last longer than 24 months. When this is the case, the workplace is not considered temporary; instead, it is regarded as permanent. Because it will be ordinary commuting, the mileage between that business and the house cannot be claimed.
When an employee works at a succession of workplaces, but the change in the workplace has no substantial impact on the employee’s commute to work, this rule is amended accordingly. All of these workplaces are treated equally in legislation.
Limited duration of attendance at a workplace does not render that workplace a temporary workplace if the employee attends during a period of continuous work that can be expected to last for all, or nearly all, of the duration for which they are likely to hold, or continue to hold, that employment. The 24-month rule is overridden in certain situations, and the workplace is permanent.
When an employee routinely attends a workplace because it is their base of operations or the location where they are allocated tasks, that place is considered a permanent workplace rather than a temporary workplace. Therefore, attendance should not be viewed as having a limited duration or temporary purpose. However, this does not imply that every place an employee works or is allocated tasks must be a permanent workplace. For example, a depot or similar workplace will only be considered a permanent workplace if the employee attends there regularly and the primary reason the employee goes there is that it is the place from where they work or at which they are routinely allocated tasks.
Some employees do not have a designated workplace but rather an employment where a specific geographical area establishes their duties. However, when all of the following requirements are satisfied, the entire geographical area is treated as the employees’ permanent workplace:
- The employee does not have a permanent workplace that serves as their primary workplace, and the employee regularly attends the area.
- The employee’s employment duties are defined concerning that area and
- It would be a permanent workplace if the area were treated as such.