Travel to training courses: can employees claim

Q: How does this work in practice?

Illustration only. Sam works in Leeds and is sent on a three day accredited course in Manchester. The employer pays his train fare from home, two hotel nights and his evening meals, and reimburses £8 of newspapers and phone calls across the two nights. All of this is exempt: the course is work related, the venue is a temporary workplace, and the incidentals are within £10 for two UK nights. Nothing goes on Sam's P11D. If the employer had also paid for Sam to stay on for a weekend in Manchester with his family, those extra nights would be a taxable benefit.

When an employer pays or reimburses an employee’s travel and subsistence to attend work related training, the payment is free of tax and National Insurance under sections 250 and 252 ITEPA 2003, provided it would have been deductible under the normal business travel rules if the training were part of the job. In practice that means the course venue is treated like a temporary workplace, so the journey from home, meals on the way and any hotel are covered. An employee who pays their own way and is not reimbursed is in a much weaker position, because the courts treat attending a course as preparing for the job rather than doing it.

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Why is employer funded travel to a course tax free?

Section 250 exempts the provision of work related training and related costs, and HMRC’s Employment Income Manual at EIM01210 confirms the exemption extends to the trainee’s travel and subsistence. The mechanism is in section 252. It asks you to assume the employee undertook the training in the performance of their duties and paid the expenses out of their earnings. If a deduction would then be due under section 337 or section 338, the amount the employer pays is exempt. The same assumption applies to mileage allowance payments for using the employee’s own car.

Without that deeming rule, most course travel would fail, because attending a course is not usually a duty of the job. The exemption from tax is mirrored for National Insurance. The training itself must be work related: section 251 defines this as training designed to impart or improve knowledge, skills or personal qualities likely to be useful in the employee’s duties, or that qualify them better for the job or a related job with the same or a connected employer. See our page on the employer funded training exemption.

Is the course venue a temporary workplace?

Section 338 gives relief for travel attributable to necessary attendance at a place in the performance of the duties, but not ordinary commuting between home and a permanent workplace or travel that is for practical purposes substantially ordinary commuting. Under section 339 a workplace is temporary if the employee goes there only to perform a task of limited duration or for a temporary purpose. A college or training centre attended for a course fits that description, which is why HMRC’s booklet 490 treats a training event as a temporary workplace.

Because section 252 tests the payment against the normal rules, the normal limits apply. A site stops being temporary if the employee spends, or expects to spend, 40% or more of their working time there over a period lasting more than 24 months, as explained on our page on the 24 month rule. Courses rarely run that long, and HMRC’s own example of a cook sent on a 10 month college course, travelling there daily with fares paid by the employer, is not taxed.

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Which journeys qualify?

The journey from home to the venue and back normally qualifies in full; the employee does not have to deduct the cost of their usual commute. Two situations need care.

Stopping at the office first. In HMRC’s example, an employee who normally commutes from Gloucester to Bristol goes into the Bristol office for a meeting before driving to a training event in Bath. The leg from home to Bristol is ordinary commuting; Bristol to Bath and Bath back home qualify.
A venue next to the office. If the course is held at or beside the permanent workplace, the journey is substantially ordinary commuting and there is nothing to exempt.

Where the employee drives, the employer can pay approved mileage allowance payments tax free. The approved rate for cars and vans is 55p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles from 6 April 2026 (45p before that date) and 25p after; see our page on mileage allowance payments.

Are meals, hotels and incidentals covered?

Travel expenses include subsistence and other costs of making the journey, following Nolder v Walters. HMRC’s guidance at EIM31815 lists necessary subsistence on the journey, meals bought while at a temporary workplace, and accommodation and meals where an overnight stay is needed. Employers can use HMRC’s benchmark scale rates for day subsistence if they prefer a flat allowance.

Personal items on a residential course, such as newspapers or laundry, are not travel expenses, but EIM01270 confirms the separate incidental overnight expenses rule applies to employees on training courses as it does to business trips. Booklet 490 sets the limits at £5 a night in the UK and £10 a night abroad, and only where the employer pays or reimburses. See incidental overnight expenses.

When does the exemption not apply?

Section 253 excludes spending to the extent it provides entertainment or recreation unconnected with the training, rewards the employee for performance, or acts as an inducement. HMRC’s examples draw the line clearly:

a sales techniques course in the UK for the sales team is work related; a conference in the Seychelles for the top 10 salespeople is not;
a sales administrator sent on a genealogy course as a reward for hitting targets gets no relief for the travel, because the course has nothing to do with the job;
on a genuine residential course in a hotel, travel and course costs are exempt, but a golfing weekend added afterwards is taxable, and only its marginal cost is taxed.

HMRC does not require apportionment just because part of genuine training is enjoyable, such as using the hotel pool on a residential course.

What if the employee pays and is not reimbursed?

Section 250 does not give relief for self financed training. The employee has to claim under the ordinary rules, and here the deeming in section 252 does not help. In Blackwell v Mills a student laboratory assistant who had to attend classes as a condition of his job was refused relief for travel to the classes and for textbooks, and HMRC says no deduction is due for continuing professional education even when it is compulsory.

The exception is an employee on a genuine training contract where the external training is an intrinsic contractual duty, accepted by the Court of Appeal in HMRC v Banerjee. HMRC’s booklet 490 also treats a short training event attended as part of the job, like the Bath example above, as a temporary workplace. Outside those cases, the better answer is usually to ask the employer to reimburse, which brings section 252 into play. More detail is on our page on relief for training you pay for yourself.

Does the employer need to report anything?

No, if the payment is exempt. Since 6 April 2016 expenses that would be fully deductible are exempt from tax and National Insurance under section 289A and do not go on a P11D, and the training exemption works in the same way. If part of the cost falls outside the exemption, such as the leisure weekend, that part is a taxable benefit or earnings and must be reported or put through payroll.

How does this work in practice?

Illustration only. Sam works in Leeds and is sent on a three day accredited course in Manchester. The employer pays his train fare from home, two hotel nights and his evening meals, and reimburses £8 of newspapers and phone calls across the two nights. All of this is exempt: the course is work related, the venue is a temporary workplace, and the incidentals are within £10 for two UK nights. Nothing goes on Sam’s P11D. If the employer had also paid for Sam to stay on for a weekend in Manchester with his family, those extra nights would be a taxable benefit.

What mistakes come up most often?

Taxing course travel because the employee would not have claimed it themselves, overlooking the deeming rule in section 252.
Paying for the home to office leg when the employee calls into the office before the course.
Treating incentive conferences or reward trips as training.
Paying mileage above the approved rates without reporting the excess.
Employees claiming relief for self funded course travel that case law rules out.

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Reviewed by Christine Anderson, Broker, Solar Protect. Last reviewed 24 October 2026. Part of Accountapedia, the Solar Protect guide to UK tax and accounting. This page is general information, not personalised advice.