What is a 'normal place of work' for Revenue?

Revenue defines it as where an employee works on a day-to-day basis. It is not always the employer's main base, and a business with multiple locations can have different normal places of work for different employees. An employee's home is not usually regarded as their normal place of work.

Is commuting from home to work claimable in Ireland?

No. Revenue is explicit that travel to and from work is the employee's own private travel and is not a business journey. Home-to-normal-place-of-work travel cannot be reimbursed tax-free, no matter how far it is, because it is not incurred in the performance of the duties of the employment.

Can I claim travel if I work from home?

Only if your home is genuinely your normal place of work, which requires an objective requirement that the duties be performed there — the work cannot be done elsewhere. It is not enough that you merely choose to work from home, or that the work done at home is incidental or administrative. Where the home does qualify, travel from home to a temporary work location can be a business journey.

How is the distance for a claimable business journey measured?

For travel to a temporary work location, the claimable distance is the lower of the distance from the employee's home to the temporary location, or the distance from their normal place of work to the temporary location. This is often called the 'lesser of' rule.

Rates & ComplianceUpdated June 2026Verified against Revenue guidance

'Normal Place of Work' & Commute Rules Explained

Almost every argument about what travel is claimable comes back to one phrase: normal place of work. Get it right and the rest of the rules fall into place. Get it wrong — usually by treating a commute as a business journey — and you've made Revenue's single most common travel-and-subsistence error. This plain-English guide explains what your normal place of work actually is, why commuting isn't claimable, how temporary and multiple workplaces work, what it means for remote and hybrid staff, and shows claimable vs non-claimable journeys side by side. Based on Revenue guidance, verified June 2026.

Check a Journey in the Calculator See the Audit Triggers

What 'Normal Place of Work' Actually Means

Revenue's definition is refreshingly plain: your normal place of work is where you work on a day-to-day basis. That's it. But three details inside that simple definition cause most of the confusion.

It isn't always the employer's main base

A business with several locations can have different normal places of work for different employees. Yours is wherever you are based day to day — which might be a branch, a depot, or a particular office, not head office.

Your home usually isn't your normal place of work

Revenue states that an employee's home is not usually regarded as their normal place of work. There's an exception — but it's a high bar (see remote and hybrid, below), and it's the source of the most expensive mistakes.

It can change — and a site can become it

If someone is based at one temporary location for a long, continuous period, that location can itself become their normal place of work — after which travel to it is commuting.

Why Home-to-Work Commuting Isn't Claimable

This is the rule people most want to argue with, so it's worth stating Revenue's position precisely.

"Travel to and from work is your employee's own private travel. It is not a business journey."
— Revenue, Travel and subsistence guidance

The reason sits in a single principle that runs through all of travel and subsistence: to be reimbursed tax-free, a cost must be incurred "in the performance of the duties" of the employment. Getting yourself to work isn't part of performing the duties — it's what you do before the duties begin. So:

Home to your normal place of work is commuting — even if it's 100 km. Distance doesn't change the nature of the journey.
It stays a commute whether you drive, carry tools, or stop for work calls on the way.
Travel from home to a first call, and from a last call back home, is generally treated the same way unless your home is genuinely your normal place of work.

Temporary Workplaces & Multiple Work Locations

If commuting is private travel, what counts as a business journey? Revenue's answer: travelling from one place of work to another as part of your duties — typically to a location that isn't your normal place of work.

Travel to a temporary work location

A trip to a client, a site, a meeting, or a course that isn't your normal base is a business journey. The claimable distance is the lower of:

home → temporary location, or
normal place of work → temporary location.

This "lesser of" rule is explained step by step in our calculation guide.

Employees with multiple workplaces

Some people genuinely work across more than one location. Two things follow:

Travel between work locations during the day is business travel.
A long, continuous posting to one location can make that the normal place of work.

Remote & Hybrid Implications

This is where modern working catches people out. Working from home does not automatically make your home your normal place of work. Revenue applies a specific test.

Home can be the NPW only if…

…there's an objective requirement that the duties be performed at home — the work genuinely cannot be carried out anywhere else. Where that's met, the home is the normal place of work and trips from it to temporary locations can be business journeys.

It is NOT enough that…

you merely choose to work from home, or
the duties carried out at home are incidental (minor or administrative).

The "office day" trap. A hybrid employee who usually works from home but goes into the office two days a week generally cannot claim those office trips — for most hybrid roles the office remains a normal place of work, so travelling to it is commuting. For the full picture, see our remote & hybrid worker travel guide.

Claimable vs Non-Claimable: Side by Side

Claimable (business journey)

Office → a client's premises and back.
Home → a temporary site (claim the lesser of home or office distance).
Site A → Site B during the working day.
Office → a one-off training course in another county.

Not claimable (commuting / private)

Home → your normal office, however far.
Hybrid worker's home → office on an "office day".
Home → a site that has become your normal place of work.
A detour for personal errands on the way to work.

Not sure which side a journey falls on? Our free T&S calculator applies the lesser-of rule and the current rates so you can check before you claim.

The Audit Risk of Getting It Wrong

Treating a commute as business travel is Revenue's single most common travel-and-subsistence disallowance. Because the normal place of work sits underneath every journey, a single wrong assumption doesn't cause one error — it repeats across every claim that relied on it.

If reimbursed "mileage" is really payment for commuting, Revenue can reclassify it as taxable pay. The employer then faces PAYE, USC, and employer PRSI on those amounts — potentially across several years and a whole team — plus interest and penalties. What looked like a tax-free reimbursement becomes a sizeable liability.

The defence is simple: document each person's normal place of work, apply the lesser-of rule on home-start journeys, and keep a clean record of the purpose of every trip. See the patterns Revenue looks for in our guide to Revenue audit triggers.

How Expense.ie Keeps You on the Right Side of It

Normal place of work on record

Each person's base is set once, so every journey is assessed against the right normal place of work — not guessed at month-end.

Lesser-of rule applied automatically

On home-start trips, the shorter of the home or base distance is used — the rule auditors check first — without manual comparison.

A purpose against every trip

Each claim records why the journey was made, building the audit trail that shows a trip was a business journey and not a commute.

Normal Place of Work FAQ

Related Resources

Revenue Audit Triggers

The patterns — commuting claims first among them — that flag T&S for audit.

Read guide

Remote & Hybrid Travel

When a home office is the normal place of work — and the "office day" trap.

Read guide

T&S Calculator

Apply the lesser-of rule and current rates to check a journey.

Try calculator

Know Which Journeys You Can Claim

Expense.ie records each person's normal place of work, applies the lesser-of rule automatically, and keeps a purpose against every trip — so commutes never slip into your claims and business journeys are reimbursed correctly. Check a journey free, or start a trial.

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