Having registered my Oyster card online, and being able to print out travel journeys, I am now wondering if I have to painfully go through these to pick out the journeys that are "actually" for my self-employed work and submit those to the tax man. In the past, the tax office have informed me that I was able to claim the whole amount of my travel card because I had purchased it for for my self-employed work (even though the very nature of it meant it could be used for other travel).

I have an Oyster card but I don't claim anything for travelling because when I have to travel to visit students at home I have already incorporated the cost of travelling in the lesson charge, so it would not really be honest to make a separate claim for travel expenses. Of course I also use the same card for private purposes but on average I find that the amount which I am paid per month more than covers the cost of the card.

One doesn't necessarily have to do with the other - by doing it that way, you are actually putting up your taxable income.
If you are charging more for travelling to students' places (which of course you should, and it imho shouldn't just be the travel expense, but also cover the travel time), all the MORE reason to claim the travel expense.

Simple example: You charge ?30 for a lesson, but ?40 for travelling to the student. Your ticket/mileage costs ?2 each way. If you don't claim, you make ?40 taxable profit. If you do, only ?36 (note: That's not "earning ?6 extra", because it probably doesn't even cover the extra time). The latter is the more clever thing to do for tax purposes.

Whether someone travels so much that it is worth the hassle in general is of course a different question.

I don't include travel costs in my fees. I suspect the answer to my own question is now that I am able to access my individual journeys online I am going to have to go through the palaver of itemising the business journeys for expense purposes.

Just posted something similar on another forum, and others have answered this too. You are not "claiming" your expenses from HMRC, in the same way that you would claim expenses from a client or employer. HMRC do not refund your expenses. You are simply allowed to subtract any expenses from your income before you pay tax on your "profit". So there is nothing dishonest in including your expenses in a tax return, whether a client has payed them or not. Dugazon has set out a very nice example of how this works, and as she says, it is the clever thing to do.

PianoNotes, if the tax office has told you in the past you can deduct the total cost of the card, there should be no reason why you still can't do that. It's only if they change the rules as a result of the new technology becoming available, and they would be able to let you know.

I keep my Oyster top up receipts and claim my travel expenses for self-employed work but I don't keep the Oyster travel details. My Oyster top up receipts add up to far more than I would be claiming for work travel. You don't have to send them to HMRC - I account for travel in my accounts at the end of the year and I keep track of what is spent for each school visit as my Oyster fares for work are generally for school visits although there might occasionally be others. Other travel expenses for work tend to be trains so I have the train tickets with the amounts on them.

Maybe a solution would be to get a second Oyster card, and use one of them exclusively for business trips?

It's possible to do this but if you do additional journeys whilst you are out - after/before the work - then it doesn't really work. It often makes sense to do non-work related 'jobs' on the back of a work trip, in my case before/after school, or on the way home etc whilst you are out, than making a separate journey or journeys at another time because it's not the best use of time.

I don't think people are allowed to have two cards, are they? A few weeks ago I bought the special souvenir Oyster card for the Queen's jubilee because it looks much nicer than the plain blue one and the staff member at the ticket office took my blue card away. Anyway, I'm happy with my nice, pretty Jubilee card.

I presume you didn't pay a new ?5 deposit? I can't see how they can stop people from acquiring more than one card.

Thanks everyone for the very helpful suggestions and thoughts. I also have a pile of Oyster card receipts in date order. I suppose I am just trying to save myself too much administrative work.

No, I just paid my usual 84 pounds for a monthly zone 2 and 3 card. The staff member didn't mention anything about a deposit.

You can do an 'add back' if you feel the need to.
For example, you spend ?100 for travel. You decide that roughly 10% is personal and 90% business. So you would only put ?90 through and ?10 to drawings (or whatever). This can apply to anything within reason (mobile etc).
The Revenue may ask (probably never but they might some day) for you to prove that 90% is business (so your new print outs may come in handy) on an average month.
I'd check with the Revenue but, personally, I would do a small add-back just to make sure.

They just assumed you wanted a different card attached to the same account, then.

Nothing would stop somebody simply going in to a station and getting a new card, without mentioning their existing one. Maybe the system won't like having multiple cards topping up from the same card or account, but there's ways around that.

I can't see any earthly reason why someone shouldn't own more than one Oyster card.

Maybe it's possible but one card is enough for me. I like things to be simple.

I have two Oyster cards - one is used by my OH - the other is mine. Last time OH's card decided to malfunction, he had to go to a tube station to get a replacement but didn't get round to it for ages (he walks to work normally) so I just got another one which he now uses. There's no reason why you can't have multiple cards - it would be useful if you have family/friends visiting from outside London who don't regularly need their own card.

You only pay a deposit on "pay as you go" cards. If you have a weekly/monthly/longer travelcard you don't have to pay a deposit.

I have always been of the understanding that an Oyster card can be used only by the person to whom it is registered and cannot be given to someone else to use. So does it mean that if, for example, I do not need to travel for a day, I can loan my card to a friend?

I believe that if you have a travelcard which requires a photocard, it can only be used by that person - these are the monthly/season tickets, I'm not sure about weekly ones. We use "pay as you go" Oyster which doesn't require any photo id and these can be used by anyone although if it is lost/stolen/malfunctions then only the registered "owner" of the card can sort out replacement.

I can't see any earthly reason why someone shouldn't own more than one Oyster card should they so wish.

I have five. Every time visitors from abroad come and stay with me, they seem to end up buying Oyster cards, and leave them with me. The ones who come to my place without taking the Tube get offered one on loan, but the ones who come on the Tube end up buying one to get there.

YES YES YES, you certainly can. We do this all the time in our house and have several oyster cards living on the hall table in particular for out of london visitors. Especially the "Pay as your go" cards as they max out at a certain point and any travel after is free. The only Oyster cards that cannot be shared are the ones with Photos attached e.g student, OAP, Job seeker reduced travel and disabled ones. If you do loan your card out and there any funds on it, the courtesy is to top it back up before return And also to make sure you get it back!

Well my Oyster card has a photo on it ........ but it's a photo of the Queen. My own photocard is a separate card which I have had for years and carry together with my Oyster card. That's what I was told to do. In fact the photo must be around 10 years old. Maybe more.