Can I claim expenses for business parking and tolls?

Understanding what “business parking and tolls” really means

Business travel costs can feel deceptively simple: you drove somewhere for work, you paid to park, you paid a toll, so surely it’s all deductible. In practice, whether you can claim expenses for business parking and tolls depends on why you were travelling, what kind of business you run, how your jurisdiction treats commuting versus business journeys, and how well you record what happened. Parking and tolls sit in a “usually allowable, sometimes not” category—straightforward when they’re clearly tied to business travel, but easily disallowed when they relate to ordinary commuting, private trips, or are bundled into personal use of a vehicle.

This article breaks down the core principles that determine when parking and tolls can be claimed as business expenses, when they can’t, and how to document them so you can claim confidently. It also covers common edge cases—client meetings, temporary workplaces, mixed-purpose trips, and working from home—along with practical recordkeeping tips that reduce headaches at tax time.

The general rule: expenses must be “wholly and exclusively” for business

Across many tax systems, the underlying test is some version of: the expense must be incurred for business purposes. If a cost has a clear business purpose, it’s generally claimable. If it’s personal, it’s not. If it’s mixed (partly business, partly personal), you may be able to claim a reasonable business portion, but not the private part.

Parking and tolls usually pass the test when you are travelling on a business journey—such as visiting a client, attending a meeting away from your normal base, going to a supplier, travelling between sites, or attending training required for work. On the other hand, parking and tolls associated with normal commuting—travelling between home and your regular workplace—are typically treated as personal, even if you need the car for your job.

The logic is that commuting is a choice about where you live relative to your workplace, not a cost incurred to perform the duties of the business. That distinction matters a lot, because many disputes and denied claims come down to whether the trip was a business journey or simply commuting dressed up as business.

Parking: when it’s usually claimable

Parking costs are commonly claimable when they arise directly because you are travelling for business. Here are typical examples where parking is often allowable:

Client and customer visits: You drive to a client site for a meeting, installation, inspection, or consultation and pay to park nearby. The parking is directly tied to earning business income.

Supplier and trade visits: You travel to a supplier to collect materials, source inventory, or meet a vendor and pay for parking. Again, the connection to business activity is clear.

Temporary workplaces and short-term assignments: You travel to a location that is not your normal base and pay to park there. If the journey qualifies as business travel rather than ordinary commuting, parking is generally claimable.

Multiple work locations in one day: If you travel between sites (for example, your office, a warehouse, and a client site) and pay for parking at one or more locations, those costs are usually business expenses, provided the journeys are business journeys rather than a normal home-to-work commute.

Business events and training: You attend a work-related conference, networking event, or training course and pay for parking. Parking is often allowed where the event itself is allowable and the travel is business travel.

In all cases, the key is the purpose of the trip, not merely the fact that your business benefited in some vague way. A claim is strongest when you can show: where you went, why you went, who it was for, and how it relates to your trade or employment duties.

Parking: when it’s usually not claimable

Parking becomes problematic when it relates to personal travel or commuting. Common examples where parking is usually disallowed include:

Parking at or near your regular workplace: Paying for parking near your normal office or base is generally part of commuting. Even if you work long hours, need to transport equipment, or have no practical public transport option, the cost is typically treated as personal.

Residential parking permits used mainly privately: If you buy a parking permit near your home and use it for both personal and business purposes, you’ll need to apportion. If the permit is mainly for personal convenience, claiming it in full is likely to be challenged.

Parking incurred during personal errands: If you park while shopping or doing personal tasks, that’s private. If you combine personal tasks with business tasks, you may only claim the business portion, and only when you can justify a split.

Fines and penalties: Parking fines and penalties are almost never deductible, even if you received the fine while working. The expense is not considered incurred “for” the business; it arises from breaking rules.

Some people assume that if they are self-employed, commuting doesn’t exist because they “work for themselves.” That’s rarely how tax rules operate. If you have a regular base of operations—an office, studio, shop, or other normal workplace—travel from home to that base is commonly treated as commuting, with parking at that location treated accordingly.

Tolls: when they’re usually claimable

Road tolls are typically treated like other travel costs: claimable when incurred on a business journey, not claimable when incurred on ordinary commuting or personal travel. Examples where tolls are commonly allowable include:

Travel to clients and suppliers: If you pay tolls to reach a client site, supplier, or meeting location, the toll is generally part of business travel.

Travel between workplaces: If you travel between business locations during the day, tolls for that travel are generally claimable.

Business trips away from your normal area: If you take a trip to another city for business, tolls incurred en route are usually allowable as part of travel costs.

Delivery and service routes: If you operate a delivery, trades, or service business and pay tolls while travelling to jobs, those tolls are usually a normal operating expense.

Just like parking, tolls become hard to claim when the travel looks like commuting. If you choose a toll road to get to your regular workplace faster, that may still be commuting. The fact it saves time doesn’t automatically transform it into business travel.

Commuting versus business travel: the distinction that decides most claims

If you want a simple mental model, think of commuting as “getting to work,” and business travel as “doing work.” That’s not perfect, but it’s a helpful start. Commuting typically means travelling from home to your normal workplace, and back again. Business travel typically means travelling to carry out business tasks—visiting customers, travelling between sites, attending meetings, and so on.

The challenge is that modern working patterns blur the line. Many people work from home some days, travel to different sites, or have no fixed office. That’s why it helps to consider how your work is structured:

Do you have a regular base? If you consistently work from a single location (an office, a shop, a studio), that’s likely your normal workplace. Travel from home to that base often looks like commuting.

Do you have multiple regular bases? Some roles involve rotating between several regular sites. Travel between sites can be business travel, but travel from home to your first regular site can still be treated as commuting in many systems.

Are you travelling to a temporary workplace? A short-term or temporary workplace can turn travel costs into deductible business travel, depending on the rules in your jurisdiction and the nature/duration of the assignment.

Are you itinerant? Some workers have no fixed place of work and travel to different locations as a central feature of the job. In those cases, travel from home to the first job may be treated differently, but you still need strong facts and good records to support it.

Self-employed, sole traders, freelancers: how claiming usually works

If you’re self-employed, you can typically claim legitimate business expenses that are incurred to earn your income. Parking and tolls are usually straightforward when you travel to clients, suppliers, or job sites. However, the same commuting principles often apply: travel from home to a regular base, like your own shop or office, is usually personal.

Many self-employed people operate from a home office. If your home is genuinely your principal place of business—meaning it’s where you run the business, keep records, plan work, manage administration, and it’s not merely a convenient place to answer emails—then travel from home to client sites and business appointments is often easier to justify as business travel. But it’s important not to overstate what “working from home” means. If you have another main place where you conduct the core of your work, the tax authority may still view travel from home to that place as commuting.

For the self-employed, apportionment is common. If you pay for a toll account that covers personal and business journeys, you’ll need to separate business tolls from private ones. Likewise, if you buy a monthly parking pass used partly for business and partly for private life, you should calculate a fair and consistent business percentage and keep notes showing how you arrived at it.

Employees: reimbursement versus claiming yourself

If you’re an employee, whether you can claim parking and tolls may depend on how your employer handles expenses. Many employers reimburse business travel expenses, including tolls and parking for client visits or off-site meetings. If you are reimbursed, you generally can’t claim the same cost again yourself. If you are not reimbursed and your role requires business travel, you may be able to claim qualifying expenses under the rules that apply to employees in your jurisdiction.

Employees often run into problems when they try to claim costs that are commuting in nature, like parking at the office or tolls used to drive to the office. Even if you are required to have a car available for work, the trip from home to your usual workplace may still be treated as personal commuting.

If your job involves frequent travel to temporary sites, customer premises, or multiple offices, the picture can change. The more your travel is integral to doing the job rather than getting to the job, the stronger the case for claiming tolls and parking. Keep in mind, though, that employee expense claims can be subject to stricter substantiation rules and a higher risk of challenge if records are weak.

Limited companies: who pays and who claims?

If you operate through a limited company, the mechanics of claiming can differ depending on whether the company pays directly or you pay personally and are reimbursed. In many cases, if the expense is incurred wholly for business, the company can pay it and treat it as a business expense. If you pay personally, you can typically submit an expense claim to the company for reimbursement, provided the cost is allowable and properly documented.

The main trap for company owners is blending personal commuting with business travel and then paying those costs through the company. If your company pays for tolls and parking associated with your commuting, that can create tax consequences—sometimes treated as a benefit or disallowed deduction—depending on local rules. The safest approach is to apply a clear policy: business journeys are reimbursed; commuting and personal journeys are not.

Company owners should also pay attention to how vehicle expenses are handled overall. Some systems allow mileage methods; others focus on actual costs; and company cars may have separate benefit rules. Parking and tolls can either be included within travel reimbursements or treated as separate line items, but they should still align with the underlying business journey test.

Mixed-purpose trips: how to apportion parking and tolls fairly

Real life rarely offers perfectly clean business journeys. You might visit a client and then stop at the supermarket on the way home, or attend a business meeting and then meet a friend for dinner. When a trip has both business and private elements, you should only claim the portion that relates to business.

Apportionment can be done in different ways, and the “right” method is usually the one that is reasonable, consistent, and supported by notes. Consider these approaches:

Separate legs of the journey: If you can clearly identify which parts of the trip were business (e.g., home → client → office) and which were personal (e.g., office → gym → home), claim tolls and parking that relate to the business legs only. If toll charges are logged by time and location, this can be quite workable.

Time-based or distance-based allocation: For a single toll route that covers both purposes, you might allocate based on the distance travelled for business versus personal. This works best when you can support it with a mileage log or mapping record.

Claim only the incremental cost: If you would have incurred a cost anyway for personal reasons, and the business element did not increase the cost, then you may not have anything extra to claim. Conversely, if the business activity caused additional tolls or parking that you wouldn’t otherwise pay, that incremental amount is often the claimable portion.

The bigger and more frequent the mixed-use pattern, the more important it is to have a method you can explain. A vague “I think it was mostly business” rarely holds up well. A simple spreadsheet that logs date, destination, purpose, and the toll/parking cost can make apportionment defensible.

Working from home: does it change what counts as commuting?

Working from home can change the nature of travel, but it doesn’t automatically make every journey deductible. The key question is whether your home is treated as a workplace in a substantive way. If home is your normal base or principal place of business, then travel from home to temporary sites, clients, and business meetings is typically business travel. If home is merely a convenient place you sometimes work, but you still have a main office where you normally work, then travel from home to that office may still be treated as commuting.

A common scenario is a hybrid employee who works from home two days a week and goes to the office three days a week. On office days, the home-to-office trip may still be commuting. On days when the employee travels from home directly to a client site because the job requires it, that travel may be business travel. Parking and tolls follow the character of the journey.

For self-employed people, working from home can strengthen the business connection if the home office is genuinely central to running the business. Still, you should be careful: claiming every journey as business because you answered one email before leaving is unlikely to be persuasive. The facts should show that home is not just where you live, but where the business is actually managed and conducted.

Temporary workplaces, changing sites, and “regular” patterns

Temporary workplaces can be one of the most confusing areas for claims. A temporary site may be treated as a business destination rather than a normal workplace, which can make travel, parking, and tolls deductible. However, if you attend the same site frequently and predictably over a long period, it may start to look like a normal workplace—even if it isn’t your employer’s main office.

The practical takeaway is this: if a location becomes your regular place of work for a sustained period, the tax system may treat travel there more like commuting. If it remains clearly temporary, intermittent, or project-based, travel may remain business travel. The boundary can depend on duration, expectation, and how your role is structured.

Because rules vary, it’s wise to keep strong contemporaneous notes. If you take on a three-month contract at a specific client site, note the contract dates, expected duration, and why the site is temporary. If the project gets extended, update your notes. Good records don’t magically make an expense allowable, but they help you apply the rules accurately and defend your position if questioned.

What about parking at airports, train stations, and hotels?

Travel can involve parking in places that feel half-business, half-personal—like airport parking for a business trip or parking at a hotel. Generally, if the trip itself is business travel, then associated parking and tolls can be part of the overall business travel costs.

Airport parking: If you drive to the airport for a business trip and pay to park, that can be a business expense if the business trip is legitimate. If you extend the trip for personal vacation days, you may need to apportion the parking cost (for example, claiming only the days related to the business portion).

Train station parking: If you drive to a station and park there to take a train to a business meeting, the station parking can be a business expense, again subject to the travel being business travel.

Hotel parking: If you stay overnight for business and the hotel charges for parking, the parking can often be claimed as part of the business trip costs. If the trip is mixed-purpose, apportionment may be needed.

Electric charging bays, valet fees, and premium parking: is “too fancy” a problem?

Sometimes the question isn’t whether you can claim parking at all, but whether you can claim premium parking choices—valet fees, higher-priced lots closer to the venue, or charging bay fees that include a parking component. Generally, the test is still business purpose and reasonableness. If a premium option is chosen for convenience rather than necessity, it may still be allowable, but it can attract scrutiny if it looks excessive relative to the business need.

For example, valet parking at a hotel for a normal meeting may be questioned if cheaper options were readily available. On the other hand, if you had to transport heavy equipment, arrive at an unusual time, or park securely for legitimate business reasons, higher parking costs can be easier to justify.

If you claim premium parking, keep a note about why it was necessary or sensible: tight schedule, safety considerations, equipment, disability access, or venue restrictions. The aim is to show that the choice wasn’t purely personal indulgence.

What you can’t claim: fines, penalties, and illegal payments

It’s worth repeating because it’s so common: fines and penalties are generally not deductible. Parking tickets, congestion penalties assessed as fines, and similar charges usually fail the basic test because they arise from a breach of law or rules. Even if you received the ticket while attending a client meeting, the payment is not considered a cost of earning income in the same way as legitimate parking fees.

Similarly, any payment that is illegal or contrary to public policy (for example, bribing an attendant to ignore rules) is not something you should be attempting to claim. Apart from tax issues, it creates broader legal and ethical problems.

Recordkeeping: what you should keep to support your claim

Parking and tolls are small, frequent expenses—exactly the type that are easy to forget, misclassify, or lose receipts for. Strong recordkeeping makes claiming simpler and safer. A good record for each expense usually includes:

Date and time: When the parking or toll was incurred.

Amount: The exact cost.

Location: Where you parked or which toll road was used.

Business purpose: A short description such as “Client meeting – ABC Ltd – project kickoff” or “Supplier pickup – materials for job.”

Evidence: A receipt, app transaction record, statement entry, or toll account report. Screenshots can help, but long-term you’ll want something that can be stored and retrieved reliably.

Digital toll accounts are both a blessing and a trap. They often provide excellent transaction logs, but they also mix private and business journeys unless you separate them. If you use one account for everything, get into the habit of tagging transactions monthly while the details are fresh.

For parking, contactless payments sometimes produce vague bank statements like “PARKING” without context. If that’s all you have, add a note in your bookkeeping system at the time so you can still show the business purpose later.

Should parking and tolls be claimed separately or as part of vehicle costs?

How you claim parking and tolls may depend on how you claim vehicle expenses overall. Some systems allow a mileage method (a fixed rate per business mile/km) that is meant to cover running costs such as fuel, maintenance, and depreciation. In those systems, parking and tolls are often allowed in addition to the mileage rate, because they are trip-specific costs rather than general running costs. In other systems, if you claim actual vehicle costs, tolls and parking may be included as travel expenses or as part of vehicle operating expenses.

The practical approach is to keep them as clearly identifiable line items. Parking receipts and toll statements are naturally discrete, and separating them helps you show they relate to specific business journeys. It also helps if you ever need to apportion between business and personal, because you can tie particular tolls and parking charges to particular trips.

Common scenarios and how to think about them

Scenario 1: You drive from home to your regular office and pay to park. This is typically commuting. Parking is usually not claimable. Tolls used on this route are usually not claimable either.

Scenario 2: You drive from your regular office to a client meeting and pay for parking. This is generally business travel. The parking is usually claimable, and any tolls on that business leg are usually claimable.

Scenario 3: You work from home and travel to a client site, paying a toll and parking fee. If home is your base for that day and the trip is to perform business duties, the toll and parking are usually claimable. Strong documentation of the business purpose helps.

Scenario 4: You travel to a conference, stay two extra days for leisure, and pay airport parking for the whole trip. You may need to apportion. The portion relating to the business days may be claimable, while the extra leisure days are personal.

Scenario 5: You drive to a client, then stop for personal shopping, and the toll charge covers both legs. Apportion the toll if possible, or claim only the business-related portion based on a reasonable method.

Scenario 6: You get a parking ticket while at a client site. The fine is generally not claimable, even though the underlying trip was business-related.

How to make your claim robust without overclaiming

The goal is to claim what you’re entitled to, not to stretch definitions until they snap. Overclaiming often happens in small increments—“it’s only a few pounds,” “I was thinking about work,” “I answered a call on the way.” Those arguments don’t usually change the nature of a commute.

Instead, focus on building a simple, repeatable process:

1) Define your “normal workplace” and business journey rules for yourself. Write down what you treat as commuting and what you treat as business travel. If you are self-employed, define whether your home is your principal place of business and why.

2) Track journeys with a short note at the time. A one-line description is often enough: who, where, why.

3) Keep receipts and digital records in one place. Use a folder structure by month, or a bookkeeping app that attaches receipts to transactions.

4) Separate business and personal where possible. If you can, use separate cards, separate toll tags, or at least consistent tagging to reduce mixing.

5) Apportion conservatively when mixed. If you can’t justify a split clearly, it’s often safer to claim less rather than more.

Special note on congestion charges and low-emission zones

In some places, driving into certain zones triggers charges that are not technically “tolls” in the traditional sense. Whether these are claimable can depend on how they are classified (a charge for road use versus a penalty) and the nature of the journey. If it is a legitimate charge incurred on a business journey, it is often treated similarly to tolls and can be claimable. If it is a penalty for non-compliance (for example, failing to register, failing to pay on time, or breaching restrictions), that part may be non-deductible.

The safest approach is to keep the documentation that shows it was a standard charge for access, paid correctly and on time, and to link it to the business journey the same way you would for a toll.

What to do if you’re unsure

If you’re uncertain, the first step is to categorize the trip: commuting, business travel, or mixed. Then look at how your local rules define a normal workplace, temporary workplace, and business travel. If you’re still unsure, consider asking a tax professional, especially if the amounts are significant or your working pattern is unusual (multiple sites, long-term client assignments, itinerant work, or a company car with complex benefit rules).

Even without professional advice, you can reduce risk by adopting a consistent policy and keeping clear evidence. Most disputes aren’t about whether parking can ever be claimed—usually it can—but about whether a particular pattern of claims looks like commuting or personal use disguised as business.

Key takeaways: claiming parking and tolls with confidence

You can often claim expenses for business parking and tolls when they are incurred on genuine business journeys—client visits, supplier trips, travel between sites, business events, and temporary workplaces. You generally cannot claim parking and tolls for ordinary commuting between home and your regular workplace, even if you need a car for work. Mixed-purpose travel should be apportioned so that only the business element is claimed, and fines and penalties are typically not deductible.

The most practical way to stay compliant is to keep simple, consistent records: receipts or transaction logs, plus a short note of the business purpose. Do that, and parking and tolls become one of the easier categories of expenses to claim—because you’ll be able to show not only what you paid, but why you paid it, and how it relates to your business.