Which parking and travel expenses can employees claim?
PAYE employees may be able to claim tax relief on necessary travel costs incurred in performing their employment duties or travelling to a qualifying temporary workplace.
HMRC's current public guidance lists potentially qualifying costs including:
- Public transport.
- Parking fees.
- Congestion charges.
- Road tolls.
- Qualifying business mileage.
- Hotel and subsistence costs where the separate rules are met.
The starting point is always the journey. If the underlying journey qualifies as employment business travel, related parking, tolls and public transport costs can potentially qualify. If the journey is ordinary commuting, paying for it yourself normally does not create tax relief.
What counts as business travel for PAYE tax relief?
Broadly, relief can apply where travel takes place in the performance of your employment duties or where you necessarily attend a qualifying workplace to perform those duties.
Examples can include:
Travel between workplaces
A necessary journey from your permanent workplace to another workplace for your employment can potentially qualify.
Temporary workplace
Necessary travel to a workplace that satisfies HMRC's temporary-workplace rules can potentially qualify.
Normal commute
Travel between home and your permanent workplace is normally ordinary commuting.
Private travel
Journeys undertaken for personal reasons do not become deductible simply because you are employed.
Can employees claim parking fees?
Yes, where the parking cost is an integral part of a qualifying business journey.
HMRC's Employment Income Manual specifically identifies car parking as one of the incidental travel costs that can form part of an allowable business journey.
Employee visits a client
An employee normally works at the employer's office but is required to drive to a client's premises for a meeting. The employee pays £14 to park near the client's premises.
If the journey to the client is qualifying business travel, the necessary £14 parking charge can potentially qualify as part of that business journey.
Can you claim parking at your normal workplace?
HMRC says employees are not entitled to tax relief where they personally pay for parking at or near their normal workplace and their employer does not reimburse them.
This is because the parking is associated with getting to and from the permanent workplace rather than a qualifying business journey.
Employer-provided workplace parking can be tax-free
HMRC provides a specific exemption where an employer provides a parking space at or near the workplace or reimburses the employee's workplace parking expense. That exemption does not mean an employee paying the same cost personally can claim an Income Tax deduction.
What about parking at a temporary workplace?
A temporary workplace is somewhere an employee attends to perform a task of limited duration or for another temporary purpose, subject to HMRC's additional rules.
Travel to a qualifying temporary workplace is not ordinary commuting. Therefore, where parking is a necessary cost of that qualifying journey, it can potentially be deductible.
Our Temporary Workplace Rules Guide covers this test in detail.
How does the 24-month rule affect travel expenses?
A workplace that would otherwise be temporary can lose that status where the employee attends it for a period of continuous work that lasts, or is expected to last, more than 24 months.
HMRC treats duties performed at a workplace to a significant extent as continuous work for this test. Its guidance generally uses 40% or more of working time as the significant-extent threshold.
You do not necessarily wait until day one of month 25. If it becomes known that continuous attendance will exceed 24 months, the tax treatment can change from the point the expectation changes.
Can employees claim train, bus or other public transport costs?
HMRC's current employee travel guidance explicitly includes public transport costs among the expenses for which tax relief may be available.
The same travel test still applies.
| Journey | General PAYE position |
|---|---|
| Train to a temporary workplace | Can potentially qualify where the temporary-workplace conditions are satisfied. |
| Train from permanent office to client | Can potentially qualify where the journey is required by the employment duties. |
| Bus from home to permanent office | Normally ordinary commuting and not deductible. |
| Personal weekend journey | Private travel and not deductible as an employment expense. |
Can taxi fares qualify?
A taxi fare can potentially form part of the actual cost of a qualifying business journey.
The fact that a taxi is more expensive than another form of transport does not by itself determine whether the journey qualifies. The employment travel rules first determine the nature of the journey.
Choosing to take a taxi from home to your permanent workplace does not normally convert the commute into deductible business travel.
Can employees claim road tolls and congestion charges?
Yes, where they arise as part of a qualifying business journey.
HMRC expressly lists toll fees, congestion charges and parking as costs that can be integral to business travel.
Parking, tolls and congestion charges are separate from mileage
They are not treated as ordinary vehicle running costs already represented by the employee mileage rate.
Can you claim parking as well as mileage tax relief?
HMRC says the statutory mileage rate covers general costs of owning and running the employee's vehicle, but does not cover journey-specific expenses such as qualifying parking, road tolls and accommodation.
So on a qualifying business journey, an employee using their own vehicle can potentially have:
- Mileage Allowance Relief under the mileage rules.
- Qualifying business parking separately.
- Qualifying road tolls separately.
- Qualifying congestion charges separately.
See our PAYE Mileage Tax Relief Guide .
What are the PAYE mileage rates for 2026/27?
From 6 April 2026, HMRC's approved mileage rate for employees using their own cars or vans for business travel increased to 55p for the first 10,000 business miles.
| Vehicle | 2026/27 approved mileage rate |
|---|---|
| Car or van — first 10,000 business miles | 55p per mile |
| Car or van — above 10,000 miles | 25p per mile |
| Motorcycle | 24p per mile |
| Bicycle | 20p per mile |
If your employer pays less than the approved amount, Mileage Allowance Relief may be available on the qualifying shortfall.
Can you claim parking fines?
Do not include parking penalties or fines as though they were normal qualifying business parking costs. HMRC has separate tax rules for parking penalties and for any employer payment or reimbursement of them.
HMRC's rules can also produce a taxable employment benefit or earnings charge where an employer pays a parking penalty that is legally the employee's liability.
What if your employer reimburses travel expenses?
You should not obtain double tax relief on the same expense.
Where an employer pays or reimburses a qualifying travel expense tax-free, that untaxed reimbursement normally reduces the amount left for an employee deduction.
£30 qualifying train fare with £20 tax-free reimbursement
Tax-free employer reimbursement: £20
Remaining employee-funded amount: £10
This simplified example assumes the journey qualifies and the £20 reimbursement was paid tax-free.
Worked parking and mileage example
100 business miles + parking + road toll
Assume an employee uses their own car for a necessary qualifying client journey during 2026/27. They have not yet exceeded 10,000 business miles and their employer pays nothing.
Business parking = £12
Road toll = £6
Illustrative qualifying expense basis: £73
The £73 is not a £73 cash refund. It is the illustrative deductible amount before applying the employee's Income Tax position.
What travel and parking records should employees keep?
Keep enough information to establish both the cost and why the underlying journey was for employment purposes.
Record the journey
Keep the date, starting point, destination and reason for the business journey.
Keep parking receipts
Retain receipts, parking app records or other evidence of business parking costs.
Keep tickets and bookings
Train tickets, travel confirmations and taxi receipts can support public transport claims.
Record employer payments
Note any mileage allowance, travel reimbursement or other amount your employer paid towards the expense.
Keep workplace details
Where temporary-workplace relief is involved, retain evidence of where and for how long you were expected to work there.
How do you claim PAYE travel expense tax relief?
HMRC provides an online job-expense service that can be used to check whether you qualify and how to submit a claim.
If you complete a Self Assessment tax return, HMRC says you must claim qualifying employment travel expenses through the return instead.
Before adding parking, train fares or tolls to a claim, first establish that the underlying journey is allowable business travel rather than ordinary commuting.
How far back can you claim?
HMRC currently says eligible employee travel expense claims can be made for the current tax year and the previous four tax years.
The relevant travel conditions must have been satisfied in each year claimed.
Reviewed & Updated
18 August 2026
2026/27
GO TAX REFUNDS
HM Revenue & Customs / GOV.UK
Employee travel relief depends first on the nature of the journey. Ordinary commuting and private travel do not qualify. Necessary business travel and qualifying temporary-workplace journeys can potentially support separate parking, public transport, toll and congestion-charge expenses.
Parking & Travel Expense FAQs
Can employees claim tax relief for parking?
Potentially, where the parking is an integral cost of a qualifying business journey. Parking associated with ordinary commuting to a permanent workplace does not normally qualify.
Can I claim parking at my normal workplace?
Not where you personally pay the cost as part of your ordinary journey to your permanent workplace. HMRC has a separate tax exemption where an employer provides or reimburses workplace parking.
Can I claim parking as well as mileage?
Yes, where both relate to a qualifying business journey. HMRC's statutory mileage rates do not include journey-specific costs such as qualifying parking and road tolls.
Can I claim train fares to work?
Normal travel from home to a permanent workplace is ordinary commuting, regardless of whether you travel by train, bus, car or another method. Travel to a qualifying temporary workplace can be different.
Can I claim a congestion charge?
A congestion charge can potentially qualify where it is incurred as part of an allowable business journey.
Can I claim road tolls?
Yes, qualifying tolls incurred as part of allowable business travel can potentially be claimed separately from employee mileage relief.
Can I claim a parking fine incurred on a work journey?
A parking penalty is not treated as an ordinary parking fee. HMRC has separate rules for penalties and employer payment or reimbursement of parking fines.
What if my employer reimburses part of my travel?
You should not obtain double relief. Where an employer reimburses part of a qualifying expense tax-free, the reimbursement normally reduces the employee-funded amount remaining for a deduction.
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