Newsom v Robertson: ChD 30 Apr 1952

Mr Newsom, a practising barrister sought to set off against his income, the expenses of travelling between his home and his chambers in London. The Inspector appealed the decision of the commissioners that he could do so. The rule required that the expense be incurred wholely necessarily and exclusively for the purposes of a trade profession or employment. He practised partly from home and partly from chambers. The Special Commissioners had disallowed travel during term, but allowed it during vacations.
Held: The issue had not previously been presented in just this form. Mr Newsom said that if he had two sets of chambers he would be allowed to claim for travel between them. However the travel in this case had a dual purpose, and it would be difficult to make a split between wholly professional purposes and private purposes. He travelled to and from chambers to get to and from home as much as to and from chambers. The travel was not therefore wholely or exclusively for business purposes, and was not deductible.

Judges:

Danckwerts J

Citations:

(1952) 33 TC 452, [1951] 1 Ch 7

Statutes:

Income Tax Act 1918 Sch D

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

CitedInland Revenue Commissioners v Von Glehn CA 1920
The company had paid a penalty during the First World War under the Customs (War Powers) Act 1915 for exporting goods without taking all reasonable care to secure that the ultimate destination should not be enemy territory. They sought to set off . .
CitedNorman v Golder (Inspector of Taxes) 1944
The court considered the nature of allowable expenses for an investment company: ‘the notion behind this Section may be thought to be that the expenditure is something which if you were looking at the profits and gains under Schedule D would be . .
CitedSmith’s Potato Estates Ltd v Bolland (Inspector of Taxes) HL 1948
The taxpayer claimed to deduct the legal costs of contesting an assessment to tax. The dispute was about the computation of the taxpayer’s profits. It assumed that those profits were ascertainable, one way or another, at the time when the dispute . .
CitedSpofforth and Prince v Golder (Inspector of Taxes) 1945
. .

Cited by:

FollowedHorton v Young CA 1972
A bricklayer sought to set against his income tax, the expenses of travelling to and from his home to work.
Held: The taxpayer travelled from home to sites within a 55 mile radius. The home was his base of operations, and the expenses were . .
CitedPowell v Jackman (Inspector of Taxes) ChD 10-Mar-2004
The taxpayer was a milkman. He sought to set off against his liability to income tax, the expenses of his daily journey between his home and the depot from which he collected the milk for distribution.
Held: The only test was whether the . .
CitedSargent v Barnes ChD 1978
The dental surgeon taxpayer travelled to his dental surgery from home by car every day, a distance of about 11 miles. He also maintained a laboratory where a dental technician worked, about 1 mile from his home and almost directly on the route . .
CitedSamadian v Revenue and Customs FTTTx 28-Jan-2013
FTTTx INCOME TAX – self-employed consultant geriatrician with office at home where he performed significant business functions – travel between home, places of employment and private hospitals where he saw . .
Appeal fromNewsom v Robertson CA 3-Jan-1953
Mr Newsom, a barrister, sought to deduct the costs of travelling between his chambers in London and his home in Whipsnade or income tax purposes. He carried out a good deal of his professional work in his well-equipped study at home, especially . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Income Tax

Updated: 04 June 2022; Ref: scu.195744