Employees want bosses to pay for their commute to the office

The report, from the Office of Tax Simplification, looked at the change in landscape and trends in relation to increasing numbers of people working in different ways since the pandemic.

It found most respondents felt government policy and messaging implied a desire to have people back in the office, stimulating the economy and reviving city centres.  

This led to suggestions that home to work travel could be incentivised through the tax system by allowing commuting costs to be tax-deductible.

The move would be a break with current tax regulations under which travel to and from a main workplace is regarded as commuting and the personal responsibility of the worker.

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Implementing a policy would carry a “significant cost”. Notably, very few employers were paying, or had plans to pay, for their employees’ commute, the report said.

Working-from-home tax is already available to millions of people who were asked to work from home during the pandemic.

People working from home are able to claim £6 a week in tax relief, but there is no travel allowance.

In autumn 2020, HMRC launched an online portal for employees to make a claim without having to provide receipts or do calculations.

The tax relief was offered to workers provided they were told by their employer, rather than chose, to work from home, and provided they did not receive home expenses payments from their company.

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For the 2022 – 2023 tax year the eligibility rules have changed. The new rules state you can’t claim tax relief if you ’choose to work from home’.

The report also said that hybrid workers should be able to keep any equipment provided by their employer and that the “cycle to work” scheme should benefit everyone, including those who don’t cycle to work.