Travel Expenses for Consultants & Recruiters in Ireland
Consultants, recruiters, and professional-services firms live on client-site visits — and travel is one line where two very different questions get tangled together. The first is what you can claim: reimbursing yourself or your staff for business travel, tax-free, under Revenue's rules. The second is what you can recharge: billing travel back to the client as part of the engagement. They feel like the same thing. They are not — and treating them as one is where the tax problems start.
This guide untangles them. It covers client-site visit travel and multi-location project work, the billable-versus-claimable distinction, the very different treatment for sole traders versus limited companies, and a clear list of what is and isn't claimable. The Revenue figures referenced are date-stamped: civil service motor rates effective 1 September 2022, domestic subsistence effective 29 January 2025, both verified current as of June 2026.
Client-Site Visits and Multi-Location Project Work
The core of the work is travelling to clients — sometimes several in a day, sometimes a single long engagement on one client's site. As long as the client site is a temporary work location and not your normal place of work, that travel is business travel.
To and between client sites — business travel
Travel from your base or home to a client site, and from one client to the next during the day, is business travel. On home-start days the "lesser of" rule applies — you use the shorter of home-to-client and base-to-client.
Long engagements can become your normal place of work
A consultant embedded at one client site for a long, continuous period risks that site being treated as their normal place of work — after which travel to it is commuting, not business travel. This is the single biggest claimable-travel risk for project consultants. See normal place of work.
Overnight and out-of-town projects
A multi-day project away from base can attract day subsistence (€19.25 for 5–10 hours, €46.17 for 10+ hours) and overnight subsistence on qualifying trips — test eligibility with the T&S calculator.
Recharging to Clients (Billable) vs Reimbursing Staff (Claimable)
This is the distinction that defines the sector — and the one most often got wrong. They are two separate money flows with opposite tax effects.
Reimbursing staff — claimable (an expense)
- Paying your own employee or director for business travel.
- Tax-free at civil service rates where conditions are met.
- Reduces taxable profit; reportable under ERR.
- An internal flow — nothing to do with the client.
Recharging clients — billable (income)
- Billing travel back to the client on your invoice.
- Part of your taxable turnover — it is income, not a pass-through.
- Generally carries VAT at your main service's rate.
- A commercial flow — set by your client contract.
Sole Trader vs Limited Company Treatment
How you can claim travel depends on your structure. This catches out a lot of independent consultants who assume they can use the civil service per-km rates — they can't, unless they operate through a company.
Sole trader / self-employed
- Cannot use civil service mileage rates.
- Claims actual motor expenses — fuel, insurance, motor tax, NCT, repairs, depreciation — apportioned for business use.
- Filed on Form 11 via ROS (Revenue guidance TDM Part 04-10-01).
Limited company
- The company can reimburse directors and employees at civil service rates, tax-free.
- Those reimbursements are reportable under ERR.
- Or the company can reimburse actual vouched costs instead.
What Is and Isn't Claimable
Generally claimable
- Travel to a client site that's a temporary work location.
- Travel between client sites during the working day.
- Day and overnight subsistence on qualifying trips.
- Accommodation for overnight client work (vouched).
- Parking and tolls on business journeys (vouched, separate from mileage).
Not claimable
- Commuting from home to your own office / normal place of work.
- Travel to a client site that has become your normal place of work (long engagements).
- Civil service per-km rates if you're a sole trader (claim actual costs instead).
- Routine meals near your normal workplace, and personal travel.
- VAT on mileage reimbursements (no recovery on the flat rate).
How Expense.ie Helps Consultants & Recruiters
Client-visit travel, correctly rated
Log each client site once; the "lesser of" rule and progressive bands are applied automatically, with site-to-site legs treated as business travel.
Tag trips by client and project
Attribute travel to the right client and engagement, so it's easy to see what's rechargeable and to produce a clean breakdown to attach to a client invoice — kept distinct from the staff reimbursement.
Reimburse staff, ERR-ready
Reimbursements to directors and employees are categorised and date-stamped for the ERR export to ROS — so the internal flow stays compliant while you bill the client separately.
A clean record for every trip
Dates, routes, purposes, rates, receipts, and approvals captured per trip — the audit trail a professional-services firm needs if Revenue ever asks, with parking and tolls vouched separately.
Consultants & Recruiters FAQ
Related Resources
Keep Claimable and Billable Cleanly Apart
Expense.ie applies the right civil service rates to client-visit travel, tags every trip to its client and project, keeps staff reimbursements ERR-ready, and gives you a clean breakdown to recharge — so the two flows never get confused. Built for consultants, recruiters, and professional-services firms.
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