Can I claim travel from home to site as a subcontractor?

Often, yes. In 2026-27, if you work from home at a run of temporary sites, HMRC's manual says home-to-site travel can be allowed, at 55p a mile for the first 10,000 miles. Daily trips to one fixed workplace are commuting.

The rules below follow GOV.UK and HMRC's Business Income Manual as checked on 16 October 2026.

The rule in one line

GOV.UK's list of travel costs you cannot claim includes "travel between home and work". The question for a subcontractor is where "work" is. HMRC's Business Income Manual (BIM37620) says that for an itinerant trader whose base is their home, travel between home and the work sites can be allowable.

Itinerant or fixed? Check which you are

HMRC describes an itinerant trader as someone who travels from home to a series of places, doing a temporary job at each before moving on. Its usual example is a jobbing builder.

The bricklayer case

The manual explains the rule through Horton v Young, a court case about a self-employed bricklayer. He had no site office, kept his tools and books at home, and worked at sites up to 55 miles away for about three weeks each. The judge, Brightman J, separated itinerant trades from trades run from a fixed place such as a shop or office, and said the bricklayer's travel costs were wholly and exclusively laid out for the purposes of his trade.

The manual adds two warnings. The word "normally" matters, because every case depends on its own facts. And distance can break the link: its example is a commercial traveller living in London whose area is Cornwall, who could not claim the London to Cornwall travel even with a travelling occupation.

When it stops being allowable

• A long stint at one site. Daily trips to the same site for months look more like going to a fixed workplace.
• A base away from home. If your business really runs from a yard or unit, home to there is commuting.
• Mixed trips. A detour for a private errand is private mileage. Only the business part counts.

Working out the claim

You claim either the flat mileage rate or a share of your actual costs, not both.

• Mileage rate (simplified expenses): for 2026-27, 55p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles in a car or van, then 25p; 24p a mile on a motorbike. It covers fuel, insurance, repairs and servicing. Parking is still claimed on top. Once you use it for a vehicle, you keep using it for that vehicle.
• Actual costs: the business share of fuel, insurance, repairs and tax, plus the vehicle itself through capital allowances or, for a van under the cash basis, as an expense.

Example: a plasterer working from home does 4,000 business miles in 2026-27, all to and between a run of short jobs. At 55p a mile the claim is 4,000 × £0.55 = £2,200. The drive to a builders' merchant on the way to a job is business; the school run is not. This is an example only. Your own figures will differ.

Steps to check your own travel

1. List where you worked over the tax year (6 April to 5 April) and for how long at each place.
2. Decide where your business is run from: home, or a yard, unit or workshop.
3. If it is home and the sites were temporary, count home-to-site and site-to-site miles as business miles.
4. If it is a yard or unit, count only the miles from there to sites and between sites.
5. Take out any private detours, then pick the mileage rate or actual costs for each vehicle.
6. Keep the log with your other records.

Keep a record

Write down each trip: the date, where you went, the job and the miles. A notes app, a diary or a mileage app all work. GOV.UK says you must keep records of your business income and expenses, and a log is what shows HMRC the travel was to temporary sites, not a daily commute.

What this means for you

If you are a typical CIS subcontractor going from job to job from home, your home-to-site mileage is often a cost you can claim, and missing it means paying tax on money you spent on the business. If you spend months on one site, or run things from a yard, the answer changes, so keep the log either way.

Use the free MTD check to see when Making Tax Digital starts for you. See what a CIS subcontractor can claim for the full list of costs, use the CIS refund estimator to see roughly what your deductions could mean, and find more guides in the trades section.