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Claiming for daily dinner expenses?
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Wardy7
Posts: 52 Forumite
in Cutting tax
Just getting all my stuff sorted for this years tax return.
I have a quick question with regards to food! Are you able to claim for buying a butty each day from the shop even if you don't ever take the receipt (they never print one to give me) or am I stuffed with this an dnot able to claim?
I've done it for years and never really thought about it but got told that could claim up to £3 per day for dinner expenses?
Cheers
Wardy
I have a quick question with regards to food! Are you able to claim for buying a butty each day from the shop even if you don't ever take the receipt (they never print one to give me) or am I stuffed with this an dnot able to claim?
I've done it for years and never really thought about it but got told that could claim up to £3 per day for dinner expenses?
Cheers
Wardy
0
Comments
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Wouldn't we all be claiming back the tax on the £3 per day if this was possible!?!0
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If you are working at a temporary place of work then, possibly (subject to the 24 month rule) otherwise no.
See also http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/protect/tax-questions-answered about a third of the way downThis is a system account and does not represent a real person. To contact the Forum Team email forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com0 -
I don't know, hence why I asked the question if it was possible or not! I don't have a clue what everyone else is doing as that is not my business!glider3560 wrote: »Wouldn't we all be claiming back the tax on the £3 per day if this was possible!?!
OK, thanks for the reply, very helpful. I'm self employed so I'm guessing not possible.If you are working at a temporary place of work then, possibly (subject to the 24 month rule) otherwise no.
See also http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/protect/tax-questions-answered about a third of the way down
Cheers
Wardy0 -
Depends. Is this outside your office or while you are out and about doing your work?
It's difficult to say without knowing more about what you do but if you are travelling around you can claim for this as an expense. You don't have to get the receipt just keep a record of what you have spent.0 -
One of the big problems with payments like this is the infamous phrase 'wholly & exclusively in the performance of your job'
As TM1976 implies, there is no clearcut answer to this and even an experienced tax expert and the HMRC would still disagree with each other with all the relevant information to hand.This is a system account and does not represent a real person. To contact the Forum Team email forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com0 -
If the OP goes out visiting clients/working at different locations this is subsistance and is an allowable business expense, it's pretty clear cut.
If they work in their office each day and they go over the road and buy a sandwich it's not so easy to see why it's a business expense. There is a wider scope however for what someone who is self employed can claim than for an employee.0 -
gracious - does this mean I can claim for husband's subsistance as a builder travelling here there and everywhere for the past - what - 6yrs??0
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HMRC have recently relaxed the rules for self employed so you can only claim meals/subsistence if you're working outside normal working patterns. If you normally work within say a 10 mile radius of home, then no lunches claimable for that, but if you occasionally stray away to do jobs 100 miles away, then yes you can claim lunches on those occasions. If you are travelling here, there and everywhere all the time, say a s/e sales rep, or maybe airport taxi driver, then you can't claim anything as travelling around is your normal "working pattern" so no claim allowed. So it really comes down to what you normally do, which isn't allowable, but for anything unusual, then yes you can claim.0
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gracious - does this mean I can claim for husband's subsistance as a builder travelling here there and everywhere for the past - what - 6yrs??
Only if you have receipts to prove the amount spent.
Actually I don't think the legislation is clear cut at all. The following is the text from the Revenue manuals:
The cost of food, drink and accommodation is not in general an expense incurred wholly and exclusively for business purposes, since everyone must eat in order to live..........
.........But extra costs may be incurred wholly for business purposes where a business is by its nature itinerant (for example in the case of commercial travellers), or where occasional business journeys outside the normal pattern are made. Modest expenses incurred in these circumstances may be deducted from business profits.
It all depends on your definition of itinerant and journeys outside the normal pattern and your own definition may not agree with that of a Revenue Inspector.0 -
I think this is straightforward. Food drink and accomodation are not business expenses in themselves however if they occur as a part of business travel (ie. moving between temporary locations or visiting other locations) then they are business expenses.
There is also a pretty heavy precident behind this as most big companies have HMR&C approved expenses policies based around these principles.
However if the OP works in the same place every day he can't claim buying his sandwich as a business expense.0
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