Can CIS subcontractors claim mileage and travel expenses?
Yes, where the travel is genuinely an allowable expense of the self-employed trade.
However, CIS subcontractors need to be particularly careful with journeys between home and construction sites because HMRC looks at the actual pattern of the trade, the number of sites and where the business is carried on.
A genuinely itinerant subcontractor moving between different temporary sites can often have allowable home-to-site travel. Someone whose normal business pattern is travelling to one regular workplace may not.
Is travel from home to a construction site allowable?
There is no blanket rule saying that every journey from home to a construction site is allowable, and there is no blanket rule saying that every such journey is ordinary commuting.
HMRC's specialist subcontractor guidance looks at the facts of the trade.
Important factors can include:
- How many different sites you work at.
- How long you normally remain at each site.
- Whether you have a separate fixed business base.
- Whether travelling between locations is inherent in the trade.
- Whether one site has effectively become your normal workplace.
- Where the business is actually organised and carried on.
What if you work at several construction sites?
HMRC's current Business Income Manual says that where a subcontractor works at two or more different sites during a year, travelling expenses between the subcontractor's home and those sites should normally be allowed.
A subcontractor moving from site to site may have an itinerant trade
HMRC's guidance refers to the Horton v Young case, which involved a self-employed bricklayer working at various building sites. The principle recognised is that a trader who continually moves between temporary locations can be different from someone who simply travels from home to one fixed business base.
What if you work at only one site?
The position can be different where a subcontractor works at a single site during the year and that is the normal pattern of the business.
In those circumstances, HMRC says home-to-site travel should only be allowed where the home is, in a real sense, the centre or base of the business.
HMRC makes clear that carrying out administration or storing tools at home does not automatically turn every journey from home to a regular workplace into deductible business travel.
What does HMRC mean by an itinerant subcontractor?
An itinerant trader is broadly someone whose trade involves moving continually between different locations, carrying out work temporarily at each location and then moving on.
Construction can fall into this category where the actual working pattern involves different sites rather than one fixed place of business.
Changing sites
Work is carried out consecutively at different locations for temporary jobs.
No fixed workplace
There is no single site or separate premises that functions as the normal operating base of the trade.
Regular depot
Travelling every day to the same depot or collection point can indicate one regular working place.
One long-term site
A pattern of working at a single location can produce a different tax result from genuinely itinerant site work.
What is a business base?
A business base is the place from which the trade is actually carried on. Determining it is a question of fact.
If you own or rent separate business premises away from home, those premises will normally be an obvious business base.
Travel from that business base to customer locations or other places where work is carried out is normally easier to identify as business travel.
Travel between home and the business base, by contrast, is normally private home-to-work travel.
Does the PAYE 24-month rule apply to self-employed CIS travel?
The rules on this page concern deductions from self-employed trading profits. HMRC's subcontractor guidance instead examines matters such as trade purpose, working pattern, business base and whether the trade is itinerant.
This is important because PAYE employees and genuinely self-employed CIS subcontractors are taxed under different travel expense frameworks.
What are the self-employed mileage rates for 2026/27?
Eligible self-employed businesses can use HMRC's simplified mileage method instead of calculating the actual costs of buying and running an eligible vehicle.
| Vehicle | 2026/27 rate |
|---|---|
| Cars & goods vehicles — first 10,000 business miles | 55p per mile |
| Cars & goods vehicles — after 10,000 business miles | 25p per mile |
| Motorcycles | 24p per mile |
The first 10,000-mile rate for cars and goods vehicles increased from 45p to 55p from 6 April 2026.
CIS mileage example
12,000 qualifying business miles
Assume an eligible CIS subcontractor records 12,000 qualifying business miles in a van during 2026/27 and uses the simplified mileage method.
Remaining 2,000 miles × 25p = £500
Total simplified vehicle expense = £6,000
This example assumes all 12,000 miles qualify as business mileage. Whether particular home-to-site journeys qualify needs to be considered separately.
Can you claim actual vehicle costs instead?
Depending on your circumstances, you may calculate qualifying actual vehicle costs rather than use simplified mileage.
Potential costs can include the appropriate business proportion of items such as:
- Fuel.
- Insurance.
- Repairs.
- Servicing.
- Vehicle tax.
- Breakdown cover.
- Finance costs where the tax rules allow them.
Mileage replaces the vehicle costs covered by the flat rate
If you use HMRC's simplified mileage method for a vehicle, you cannot also claim fuel, insurance, servicing and the other running costs already represented by that mileage rate.
HMRC also restricts using simplified mileage where a vehicle has already been dealt with through incompatible capital-allowance or expense treatment.
Can you claim parking, tolls, trains and other travel?
Qualifying travel expenses can potentially be claimed separately from simplified vehicle mileage.
Depending on the journey, these can include:
- Business parking.
- Train fares.
- Bus and coach fares.
- Taxi fares.
- Qualifying tolls and similar journey costs.
A penalty or fine should not be treated in the same way as an ordinary qualifying business parking charge.
What about private mileage?
Private journeys are not deductible.
If you use the actual-cost method and the vehicle has both business and private use, the claim should reflect only the appropriate business element.
If you use simplified mileage, only qualifying business miles go into the mileage calculation.
Can CIS subcontractors claim meals and accommodation when travelling?
Meals are subject to additional restrictions because ordinary food is normally a personal living cost.
HMRC's specialist subcontractor guidance says ordinary lunches can be disallowed even where a subcontractor travels to different sites within a normal local working pattern.
However, where a subcontractor is obliged to stay away overnight while working away from the business base, reasonable accommodation and associated subsistence can potentially qualify.
Mileage and subsistence have related but separate tax tests. Keep the meal and accommodation question distinct from whether the underlying journey qualifies.
Our separate CIS Travel, Meals & Accommodation guide will cover these subsistence rules in greater detail.
Can mileage increase a CIS tax refund?
Qualifying mileage or vehicle expenses can reduce taxable business profit.
A lower taxable profit can affect the Income Tax and National Insurance ultimately due, which in turn can affect the comparison with CIS deductions already suffered.
Mileage does not create a guaranteed CIS refund
The final result depends on the complete tax calculation, including business profit, other income, allowances, National Insurance and the CIS deductions verified by HMRC.
See our CIS Tax Refunds Guide for how the year-end repayment calculation works.
What mileage and travel records should you keep?
Good records are particularly important for CIS site travel because whether a journey qualifies can depend on your wider working pattern.
Record the date
Keep the date of every journey included in your business mileage records.
Record the site
Note the construction site, customer, depot or other destination involved.
Record the mileage
Keep the business miles travelled rather than estimating the annual figure from memory.
Record the business reason
State why the journey was undertaken and how it relates to the trade.
Keep the wider site history
Records showing when you started and finished at different sites can help demonstrate the actual pattern of the business.
Reviewed & Updated
18 August 2026
2026/27
GO TAX REFUNDS
HM Revenue & Customs / GOV.UK
Whether home-to-site travel is allowable depends on the actual facts of the self-employed trade. Working under CIS does not automatically make every journey deductible, and the PAYE temporary-workplace rules should not be substituted for the self-employed trading-expense test.
CIS Mileage & Travel FAQs
Can CIS subcontractors claim mileage to construction sites?
Potentially. HMRC says travel between home and sites should normally be allowed where a subcontractor works at two or more different sites during the year. A regular single-site pattern can be treated differently.
What is the CIS mileage rate for 2026/27?
CIS does not have its own mileage rate. Eligible self-employed businesses using simplified expenses can use 55p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles in cars and goods vehicles and 25p thereafter. Motorcycles use 24p.
Can I claim 55p per mile in my van?
Eligible goods vehicles such as vans can use the simplified mileage rates where the conditions for that method are satisfied.
What if I work on one construction site all year?
HMRC says that where one site is the normal pattern, home-to-site travel should only be allowed if the home is genuinely the centre or base of the business. The facts need to be considered.
Does the 24-month rule apply to CIS subcontractors?
The employee temporary-workplace rule is not the test used for deductions from self-employed trading profits. HMRC's subcontractor guidance instead examines the business base, working pattern and whether the trade is itinerant.
Can I claim fuel as well as 55p mileage?
Not for the same vehicle under the simplified mileage calculation. The flat mileage rate represents relevant vehicle running costs including fuel.
Can I claim parking as well as mileage?
Qualifying business parking can be claimed separately from simplified vehicle mileage. Penalties and fines should not be treated as ordinary parking expenses.
Does business mileage guarantee a bigger CIS refund?
No. Qualifying travel expenses can reduce taxable profit, but whether a refund is due depends on the complete tax calculation and the CIS deductions credited by HMRC.
HMRC & GOV.UK Sources
This guide is reviewed against HMRC's specialist guidance for subcontractors and current self-employed vehicle expense rules.
Travel between construction sites?
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