Home-based employee: Deducting travel expenses as actual costs on your tax return

Yes, it's possible

A home-based employee is an employee like any other for income tax purposes. There is no special tax regime for home-based employment: they benefit, like all employees, from the automatic 10% flat-rate deduction applied to their salaries. If they believe their professional expenses, including travel, exceed this flat rate, they can waive it and instead deduct their actual expenses.

For a home help worker who travels frequently, especially between multiple employers, the question is worth considering every year.

How it works

• The choice is annual and individual: each household member decides for themselves. Actual expenses are never combined with the 10% flat-rate deduction.
• The amount is declared in boxes 1AK to 1DK of the income tax return. Entering an amount in these boxes constitutes an option for actual expenses.
• Expenses are detailed in a separate note, including their nature and amount. Supporting documents are not attached to the return but must be kept in case of a request from the administration. Keep them for at least four years.

To be deductible, expenses must:

• be necessary for the exercise of the salaried activity;
• be incurred solely to acquire or preserve income;
• be paid during the tax year;
• be justified.

Two types of travel not to be confused

A home-based employee makes two types of travel, which are subject to different rules:

• commuting trips: from home to the employer's home and back. These are home-to-work travel expenses, borne by the employee. They can be deducted as actual expenses, but within the limits described below (40 km, one round trip per day);
• work-related travel: trips made during service at the employer's request, for example running errands, accompanying the person being helped to an appointment, or driving children to school. These are full-fledged professional expenses: neither the 40 km limit nor the daily round trip rule applies. These are the trips covered by the mileage allowance provided for in the collective agreement.

Keeping the two separate in your travel log avoids calculation errors and makes it easier to justify in case of a check.

Commuting trips

Transportation costs for the trip between home and the workplace are deductible, except in exceptional cases, for a limited mileage. For a home-based employee, the 'workplace' is the employer's home.

The 40 km limit

The limit is assessed per trip: 40 km between home and the workplace, i.e. 80 km round trip per day. When the distance does not exceed 40 km, the deduction is automatically accepted and the distance does not need to be justified. A few extra kilometers alone are not enough to challenge the deduction.

Beyond that, only the first 40 kilometers are taken into account, unless the distance is justified by special circumstances: employment-related reasons, family or social situation, other than mere personal convenience. In this case, an explanatory note must be attached to the return.

To assess these circumstances, the administration must take into account employment conditions, particularly the economic difficulties of the employee's employment area, especially if they live in a rural area. A home-based employee who lives far from towns and whose employers are scattered may therefore legitimately claim a deduction for all their trips, provided they clearly explain their situation (local job offers, location of employers, lack of nearby alternatives).

The BOFiP also cites as acceptable circumstances jobs that involve different and distant workplaces each year. This case primarily concerns jobs where the location changes from one year to the next, but it can be used by analogy by an employee who works for several individuals spread over a large area.

Only one round trip per day

In principle, only the costs of one daily round trip between home and the workplace are deductible. Additional trips, for example to go home for lunch, are only accepted in special circumstances (working hours, health condition, impossibility of eating on site or nearby).

Trips between two employers

The situation of an employee with multiple employers is the most common in home-based employment: they sometimes chain two or three homes in the same day. The trip from one employer to another is not made on behalf of either of them: it is not a work-related trip and does not entitle the employee to the conventional mileage allowance. It is similar to a commuting trip, to the next employer's home.

We found no clear official position on this specific case in the documentation we read, particularly regarding the application of the daily round trip rule. Before deducting these trips, it is prudent to check with the local tax office.

Work-related travel

Trips made during service at the employer's request are deductible professional expenses in full, with no distance limit. They simply need to be justified: date, employer, reason (shopping, medical appointment, outing) and kilometers traveled.

These trips are normally reimbursed by the employer (see below). When claiming actual expenses, they only become interesting if they are not reimbursed, or reimbursed at a rate lower than the tax scale.

How to calculate the amount

For a trip by car or two-wheeler, the administration publishes a mileage scale that assesses the cost per kilometer, based on the vehicle's tax power and the annual distance traveled. A kilometric expenses simulator is available on impots.gouv.fr.

A few rules to know:

• the scale is capped at 7 HP for cars and 5 HP for two-wheelers: a more powerful vehicle is calculated as a 7 HP;
• for a 100% electric vehicle, the scale is increased by 20% (excluding plug-in hybrids);
• tolls, parking fees and loan interest related to the purchase of the vehicle are added to the scale, on supporting documents.

The scale is a calculation tool, not a waiver of justification: the employee must be able to demonstrate the means of transport used, the frequency and the importance of their trips. A simple logbook (date, employer, kilometers, distinguishing between commuting trips and work-related travel) is enough to establish this reality, provided it is kept throughout the year.

Meal expenses and other professional expenses can also be deducted as actual expenses, under their own conditions.

Allowances paid by the employer

This is the point that changes the calculation. If the employee opts for actual expenses, they must add to their taxable salaries the allowances and reimbursements for employment expenses paid by their employer and intended to cover the expenses they are deducting: flat-rate allowances or reimbursements on supporting documents. They are declared in the salary boxes (1AJ to 1DJ), while actual expenses go in 1AK to 1DK.

In home-based employment, the collective agreement (IDCC 3239, article 57) provides that an employee who uses their own vehicle for the needs of their activity, with the agreement of the private employer, is entitled to a mileage allowance. The amount is set in the employment contract and cannot be less than the administration's scale or more than the tax scale. These allowances only cover work-related travel (shopping, accompanying the person being helped), never the commuting trip.

In practice, by opting for actual expenses, the employee adds these allowances to their salaries, but in return deducts the kilometers traveled during service that they reimbursed. These two amounts largely offset each other: the gain comes mainly from commuting trips, which are not reimbursed. If the employer contributes to these trips (for example by paying part of a public transport subscription), this contribution must also be reintegrated. The calculation is only worthwhile if actual expenses, minus reintegrated allowances, exceed the 10% flat rate. Actual expenses higher than 10% of salaries are therefore not enough to conclude: you need to compare the two options across the entire return.

In practice

1. Keep a travel log throughout the year: date, employer, kilometers traveled, distinguishing between commuting trips and work-related travel.
2. Summarize at the end of the year the mileage allowances and transport cost contributions received from each employer.
3. Compare: 10% of net taxable salaries on one side, actual expenses minus reintegrated allowances on the other. You can use the income tax simulator.
4. If actual expenses win, fill in boxes 1AK to 1DK and attach the detailed note. Keep the supporting documents.
5. If the difference is small, stick with the flat rate: the 10% deduction requires no supporting documents.

Sample explanatory note

When the distance exceeds 40 km per trip, the explanatory note attached to the return sets out the reasons for the distance. It must be factual, quantified and specific to your situation. Here is a template to adapt: replace the passages in square brackets and delete those that do not apply to you.

Explanatory note attached to the income tax return [year]
Option for deduction of actual expenses: home-to-work transport costs

[Name, first name]
[Address]
[Tax number]

I am a home-based employee for [number] private employers
(direct employment, collective agreement IDCC 3239). My home is located in [town], and my workplaces are located in [towns or addresses].

Distance home-main workplace: [X] km per trip, i.e.
[2X] km per working day. Number of working days in the year: [N].

Reasons for the distance:

1. Employment area: I live in a rural area ([town of X inhabitants]).
   Job offers in the home help sector are limited there:
   [specify, for example: private employers in my town and neighboring towns are few, I could not find an equivalent job within 40 km].

2. Location of my employers: my employers are scattered across
   [area]. I have to travel to their homes, with no possibility of concentrating my activity near my home.

3. [Optional, depending on the case] Family constraints: [spouse whose job is located in ..., children attending school in ..., state of health of a relative, etc.].

4. [Optional] Public transport: no service serves my workplaces at the times of my interventions, which requires the use of a personal vehicle.

Calculation of home-to-work travel expenses: [X] km x [N] days x 2
trips = [total] km per year, assessed according to the mileage scale in force for a vehicle of [tax power] HP, i.e. [amount] euros.

[If applicable] Work-related travel made at the request of my employers (shopping, accompaniments): [Y] km per year, i.e.
[amount] euros. Mileage allowances received for these trips, reintegrated into my salaries: [amount] euros.

Documents kept at the disposal of the administration: log of my trips (date, employer, reason, kilometers), employment contracts, vehicle registration document, [other supporting documents].

Done in [place], on [date]
[Signature]

Three tips to make the note credible:

• Quantify: distances, number of days, number of employers. A vague note is easy to dismiss.
• Use verifiable facts: a map of the town, employer letters, public transport timetables showing no service.
• Be consistent with the rest of the file: the address, employers and amounts must match your payslips and your return.

This template is a writing aid, not personalized tax advice. For a large amount or a special situation, contact your local tax office.

For the employer

Mileage allowances (work-related travel) and contributions to transport costs (commuting trips) are declared at the same time as hours on cesu.urssaf.fr, in salary supplements, each in its own section. For the monthly mechanics of the declaration, see the article on monthly CESU declaration.

What Kiwisio brings in practice

The main difficulty with actual expenses is not the calculation, it's keeping a reliable log all year round. Kiwisio largely takes care of this for commuting trips:

• Trips are calculated automatically from the schedule. Each intervention generates the corresponding trip, with its distance and duration, calculated on the road network. You don't have to enter anything on a daily basis.
• Sequences between employers are detected. Between two interventions, Kiwisio determines whether you had time to go home or whether you went directly from one employer to the other, and records the trip accordingly. The detail clearly distinguishes a trip from home from a trip from the previous employer.
• Cancelled interventions and absences are excluded, so that the total corresponds to the trips actually made.
• Totals are available by day, week and month, with a map of your intervention locations: a way to report consistent annual mileage and support an explanatory note (location of employers, distances).
• The schedule brings together all your employers, including non-CESU activities, which avoids forgetting a trip when you work for several households.
• The employment contract generated provides for the mileage allowance under article 57 of the collective agreement, with its amount per kilometer, when the use of a personal vehicle is planned.

Work-related travel (shopping, accompaniments) is not deducted from the schedule: it depends on what the employer asks you to do on site. Note them separately, with their reason, to include them in your calculation.

Official sources

• impots.gouv.fr: "How do I declare my actual expenses in my income tax return?"(opens in a new tab)
• impots.gouv.fr: "Is deducting my actual expenses more beneficial?"(opens in a new tab)
• impots.gouv.fr: "My employer reimburses me for professional expenses, can I opt for actual expenses?"(opens in a new tab)
• impots.gouv.fr: "Is there a limit related to the distance between my home and my workplace for the deduction of my transport costs?"(opens in a new tab)
• impots.gouv.fr: "Transport costs"(opens in a new tab)
• BOFiP: BOI-RSA-BASE-30-50-30-20, deduction of actual expenses, travel and meal expenses(opens in a new tab)
• BOFiP: BOI-BAREME-000001, mileage scale applicable to cars and motorized two-wheelers(opens in a new tab)
• Legifrance: National collective agreement for private employers and home-based employment (IDCC 3239), article 57(opens in a new tab)