The Income Tax (Approved Expenses) (Amendment) Regulations 2019

These Regulations amend the Income Tax (Approved Expenses) Regulations 2015 (S.I. 2015/1948) (the “2015 Regulations”) as a result of legislation made in the Finance Act 2019 (c. 1) (“FA 2019”).

Section 10 FA 2019 inserted section 289A(2A) of the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 (c. 1) which creates an income tax exemption for certain amounts which have been paid or reimbursed to an employee in respect of travel expenses. Section 289A(2A)(a) provides that this exemption applies to amounts which have been “calculated and paid or reimbursed in accordance with regulations made by the Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs” (the “Commissioners”). Regulation 2 amends the 2015 Regulations to specify that this condition is met, from the tax year 2019-20, by amounts that are paid or reimbursed to an employee in accordance with rates for overseas travel expenses published by the Commissioners.

A copy of these rates will be available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/scale-rate-expenses-payments-employee-travelling-outside-the-uk. The department will arrange for a hard copy to be purchased and held with the department’s Employee Benefits and Expenses Policy Team, whose office is at 100 Parliament Street, London, SW1A 2BQ and for the copy to be available for inspection free of charge upon request. The team can be contacted at [email protected].

A Tax Information and Impact Note covering this instrument was published on 6th July 2018 alongside the draft clauses and explanatory notes for the Finance Bill 2018-19 and is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/abolition-of-receipt-checking-for-benchmark-scale-rates-and-changes-to-overseas-scale-rates. It remains an accurate summary of the impacts that apply to this instrument.