MilometryTwo jobs, one car: which journeys count
Travel between separate employments, the second-job commute, and the rule that surprises people working for companies in the same group.
Information générale, pas un conseil. Rédigé à titre d’information générale et exact à notre connaissance au 27 septembre 2026. Les règles fiscales changent et leur application dépend de votre situation. Ceci n’est pas un conseil fiscal, juridique ou financier : vérifiez auprès d’un expert-comptable, d’un conseiller fiscal ou de l’administration fiscale avant de vous y fier.
Plenty of people hold two jobs, and the travel between them is where the confusion sits. These are the rules for employees. Where a journey is business travel, the employer for that job can pay you for it tax free up to the approved amount, and if they pay less you can claim tax relief on the shortfall against your own Income Tax (Mileage Allowance Relief).
The default: each job has its own commute
If you work for two separate employers, the journey from home to each of them is ordinary commuting for that employment. Neither is claimable.
That includes the awkward middle case: finishing at job A, driving to job B. Even though it feels like a working journey rather than a commute, HMRC's guidance is that there is no relief for travel between a permanent workplace and a place where you do the duties of another job, unless one of the exceptions below applies.
The exception: companies in the same group
Where both employers are companies in the same group (a company and its 51% subsidiaries, directly or indirectly), travel from a place where you did the duties of one job to a place where you do the duties of the other can be business travel. Two companies that are both owned by the same person, with no parent company above them, are not a group for this purpose.
There is a second, narrower exception: if you are a director of one company because another company you work for (or a company in its group) has a shareholding or other financial interest in it, travel between the two within the UK can also qualify.
This is the case most likely to be missed by people who work across a group. Those journeys can be claimable, and often are not claimed because they feel like commuting. The drive from home to either workplace is still ordinary commuting.
Which journeys count
| Journey | Employers | Claimable? |
|---|---|---|
| Home → job A | n/a | No, commuting |
| Home → job B | n/a | No, commuting |
| Job A → job B | Not in the same group | No, unless the director exception applies |
| Job A → job B | Same group of companies | Often yes, travel between group employments |
| Job A → client of job A | n/a | Yes |
| Home → temporary site for job B | n/a | Yes, subject to the 24-month rule |
The third and fourth rows are the same physical drive with different answers, decided by something invisible from the road.
The temporary workplace overlay
Everything from the 24-month rule still applies on top. If a workplace is genuinely temporary for that job (a short assignment, a site with a defined end), travel to it may be business travel for that job, including from the other job's workplace.
One more point where the two jobs interact: the 10,000-mile band. Business miles for employments with the same employer, or with employers under common control, are added together before the 55p rate drops to 25p. Miles for unconnected employers are counted separately.
Two tests, applied in order: is this workplace permanent or temporary for this employment, and if permanent, is the journey commuting or travel between group employments.
Why this argues for recording everything
The pattern here is that the same physical journey can be claimable or not depending on facts that are not visible from the road: who employs whom, whether an assignment is expected to run past two years, whether the two employers are in the same group.
Those facts can also change after the journey. A contract extends; a company is acquired; a temporary site becomes the permanent base.
If the journey was never recorded, none of that helps you. If it was recorded and classified, changing the classification later is trivial and the underlying evidence still holds.
That is the argument for logging everything and deciding afterwards, rather than deciding at the roadside whether a drive is worth writing down.
Sources
- 490: Tax and National Insurance contributions for employee travel (HMRC)
- Employment Income Manual EIM32075: temporary workplace (HMRC)
- Employment Income Manual EIM32080: the 24-month rule (HMRC)
- Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003, section 339 (legislation.gov.uk)
- Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003, section 340: travel between group employments (legislation.gov.uk)
- Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003, section 340A: travel between linked employments (legislation.gov.uk)
- Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003, section 230: the approved amount and associated employments (legislation.gov.uk)
- Employment Income Manual EIM32035: travel between separate employers within a group (HMRC)
- Ordinary commuting and private travel (490: Chapter 3) (HMRC)
- Business travel mileage for employees' own vehicles (HMRC)
- Claim tax relief for your job expenses: vehicles you use for work (HMRC)
General information for UK drivers, not tax advice. Group-employment cases turn on the detail: take advice before relying on one.
