Spouse travelling with an employee on business

When an employer pays for an employee’s husband, wife or civil partner to come on a business trip, the cost is normally taxable on the employee, even if the trip itself is wholly for business. It is only free of tax where the partner’s presence is genuinely needed for the employee’s duties, for example as an interpreter, as the essential host of business entertaining the employee must organise, or as a carer where the employee’s health makes travelling alone unreasonable. Separate rules allow family travel tax free during long overseas postings.

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Why is the partner’s travel taxable at all?

Anything an employer provides for a member of the employee’s family or household is charged on the employee if it is provided by reason of the employment, and section 201(3) of the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 (ITEPA) deems anything provided by the employer to be provided for that reason. HMRC’s guidance at EIM20504 lists family or household as including the employee’s spouse or civil partner, children and their spouses, parents, dependants, domestic staff and guests. Its own example is an employee who takes the family away at the employer’s expense and is taxed on their fares and accommodation as well as his own.

EIM31980 applies this to business trips. Some employers encourage a director or employee to bring a spouse, especially on trips abroad, and pay or reimburse the spouse’s costs. HMRC says those costs are taxable on the employee as earnings, and the employee then has to look for a deduction under sections 336 to 339 ITEPA.

When is the partner’s cost not taxable?

A deduction is due only if the cost of taking the partner was necessarily incurred in the performance of the employee’s duties. HMRC suggests a practical question: would the duties have required someone else, such as a secretary or an interpreter, to go with the employee if the partner had not gone? EIM31985 says a deduction should normally only be given where:

the partner has a special skill or qualification connected with the employee’s job that is needed on the trip, though not necessarily full time, such as a competent linguist interpreting at business meetings
the partner’s presence is essential to host a series of business entertaining occasions that the employee is required to organise as part of the job; simply attending functions where other guests bring their partners is not enough
the employee’s health is so poor that it would be unreasonable to travel alone, in which case the carer’s expenses are covered by section 338

Where one of these applies and the employer reimburses the cost, section 289A exempts the payment because a matching deduction would be due, so there is nothing to report. Section 289D gives the equivalent exemption where the employer provides the travel directly. Neither exemption applies if the cost is provided through salary sacrifice. The courts have taken a hard line where the facts were not proved: in Maclean v Trembath a deduction for a wife’s trip to Australia was refused for lack of evidence. HMRC tells its officers that establishing the facts, ideally by meeting the couple, is vital.

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What if the employee’s own trip is doubtful?

The partner question only arises cleanly if the employee’s own travel qualifies. HMRC treats overseas conferences, seminars and study tours restrictively. EIM31950 says the costs are deductible only if attendance is necessary to carry out the duties, and EIM31970 says trips that are really incentives, with a token business session and a programme of social events, are taxable in full. EIM31991 gives the example of a seven day sales conference in Marbella with two formal sessions, which is wholly taxable. If the trip is an incentive, both the employee’s and the partner’s costs are taxable, and our guide to business entertainment and client gifts covers the related corporate tax position.

How do you work out the taxable amount?

Only the extra cost of the partner is taxable when the employee’s own trip is a genuine business trip. HMRC’s worked example at EIM31992 is a sales director required to attend a conference in Tokyo, whose wife attends the social functions. The costs are £3,600 for two business class return fares, £800 for four nights in a hotel and £600 for meals. The director’s own costs are deductible, but his wife’s are not. HMRC treats £1,800 of air fare and £300 of food as the extra cost, and nothing for the hotel because the room cost the same as a single traveller would have paid.

EIM31965 adds that HMRC will not accept a percentage split of the whole trip based on time spent on business and leisure. Each expense has to be looked at on its own.

Illustration only. An employee attends a three day trade fair in Germany that is part of her duties. Her partner goes along purely for company. The employer pays £400 for two return flights, a hotel room that costs £150 a night whether one or two people stay, and £90 for the partner’s meals. The taxable amount is the partner’s £200 flight and £90 of meals, a total of £290. The hotel adds nothing.

Is there special relief for long overseas postings?

Yes. Section 371 ITEPA gives a deduction for the travel of the employee’s spouse, civil partner or child where a UK resident employee is absent from the UK for a continuous period of at least 60 days to perform the duties of one or more employments. EIM34050 explains that the relief covers travel between the UK and the overseas place of work when the family accompanies the employee at the start, visits during the absence or returns afterwards. It is limited to two outward and two return journeys per family member in a tax year, and children must be under 18 at the start of the outward journey. Accommodation and meals for the family once they arrive are not covered. EIM34060 confirms that weekends and holidays abroad do not break the 60 days.

Section 374 gives a similar relief for non UK resident employees and qualifying new residents working in the UK, covering family travel between the UK and the country where the employee normally lives. EIM35050 says the journey must end within five years of the employee’s qualifying arrival, the employee must be in the UK for a continuous period of at least 60 days for work, and the same limit of two journeys each way per person per tax year applies.

How is it reported and what National Insurance is due?

National Insurance follows the contract. NIM13180 explains that where the employer contracts with the supplier, for example by booking the partner’s flight on the company account, the item is a benefit: it goes on form P11D and attracts Class 1A National Insurance. Where the employee books and pays and the employer reimburses, or the employer pays a bill the employee contracted for, the payment is earnings for Class 1 National Insurance. Our guide on whether expenses and benefits attract Class 1 or Class 1A sets out the distinction.

Many employers prefer to settle the tax themselves. GOV.UK lists the expenses of a spouse accompanying an employee abroad as an example of an irregular item that can go in a PAYE Settlement Agreement. The application deadline is 5 July after the tax year, and the tax and Class 1B National Insurance are due by 22 October after the year, or 19 October if paying by post.

What mistakes come up?

Assuming the partner’s travel is covered because the trip is for business. The test is whether the partner’s presence was needed for the employee’s duties.
Relying on social attendance. Going to dinners where other guests bring partners does not meet HMRC’s hosting test.
Apportioning the whole bill by time, which HMRC rejects, instead of identifying the extra cost.
Forgetting the family travel rules for long postings, which can make flights tax free even where the partner has no business role.
Not keeping an itinerary and a note of what the partner did. HMRC asks for evidence in these cases, so keep it ready for any employer compliance check.

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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.