If a sex worker used a bedroom for ‘business’ would that room be liable for CGT when he/she retired?
By the way, will folk working from home lose that element of travel allowance in their salaries?
My own view is that this is wrong - HMRC is clear, travel to/from your normal place of work is not a business activity. As you are not being paid to do it, it is not fair to penalise you if you choose to work at home or travel more cheaply.
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Fairness may not be in it; dont people like civil servants and others get travel allowances if living out of, say, London.
If there is a specific travel allowance it would be reasonable of an employer to withhold it, normally however you can’t claim travel expenses for the commute to your normal place of work so that money would be treated as salary by HMRC
Most people don’t get travel allowances unless it is to a location other than their normal place of work (so, for example a company with offices in two locations, or a business trip to a client using your own car).
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Thank you bb, I have little experience of these things.
What a strange sense of humour.
Travel expenses are usually expenses that vary from one month to the next, rather than an integral part of ones salary.
Within my experience (admittedly only in HE) one got a travel allowance if lecturing or attending an administrative meeting (the worst!) on another campus. This may sound trivial/negligible; but for several years, every week, I had to do a 184 mile round trip to teach on another campus. I was reimbursed for the mileage, but after two years of this schlep, my union got me reimbursed for travel time too.
and IIRC the allowance may be adjusted if the place you are visiting is also in the general direction of your recognised workplace, ie if say it is 5 clicks further travel from the distance you would have travelled anyway to reach you place of work (say 20 clicks distant) you would only claim the 5, not 25… 
Pretty much, yes.
Yes, I’m actually paid for two hours of travelling as I have to go to two different remote sites, each once a week and each about 30 minutes drive from home and I have to be on site 9-5, as well as being able to claim an allowance for the mileage.
True - but most folks working in or around London receive London Weighting as a component of their salaries.
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as well as a travel allowance
That just reflects the fact that the cost of living is higher in London.
Yes the person providing ‘professional services’ would be liable for CGT on that part of the house.
The UK tax authorities have been sued for living off immoral earnings when they charged prostitutes income tax. But the court case against the tax people for this was lost.