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 between his home and his surgery. He stopped off at the laboratory every morning and evening, to pick up or deliver dentures and to discuss matters with his technician. He claimed to deduct the cost of travel between his surgery and the laboratory. The laboratory was set up in an outbuilding of Mr Barnes’ father’s house.
Held: Oliver J concluded that ‘it would in my judgment be a travesty to say that the taxpayer was in any relevant sense carrying on his practice as a dentist at [the laboratory]’. He held that Mr Barnes’ ‘base of operations where the practice was carried on’ was at the surgery. Just because the journeys to the laboratory were ‘necessary’ (as the General Commissioners had held), that did not mean the expense of them was incurred ‘solely or exclusively for the purposes of the practice’. The journeys were in essence journeys between his home and his ‘base of operations’ at his surgery and he was simply using the journey to and from his home to visit the laboratory. The essential character of the journey remained unchanged and for that reason it could not be regarded as satisfying the statutory test.
Oliver J
[1978] 1 WLR 823, [1978] 2 All ER 737
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – 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 . .
Cited – Horton 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 . .
Cited by:
Cited – Samadian 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 . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Income Tax
Updated: 13 December 2021; Ref: scu.503551