Any views on Subsistence- food expenses?

skyjumper

stphnstevey- that's interesting how the Umbrella companies do this and get into trouble.

any idea how the HMRC ract to Ltd Company Directors doing this ? any experiences

Murphy_The_Cat

stphnstevey wrote: »

I do retain receipts for most things - however it was particularly lunches while on business trips as the client was reimbursing me £6 a day.

I claimed the full allowance and took sandwiches. So there was no real spend, so no receipt.

.

oh dear. Just keep your fingers crossed that you or the Company that you claimed the expenses from don't ever get a Compliance Visit, as you could both end up paying a LOT of money to HMRC. Paying expenses without supporting reciepts and/or supportive evidence on a regular basis is about as bad as it gets in HMRC's eyes and is inexcusable (according to them).
An odd occassion for a re;atively small amount and HMRC aren't fussed -- but on a regular basis, I fear that you may be stuffed :eek:

Pennywise

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

** unless the Company has a dispensation scheme set up with HMRC, where they have done a 10% sample of eligible staff, over an agreed period (usually a month) and audited what they spent in expenses on a daily, weekly, monthly basis, submitted the data to HMRC, who then approved that the a figure that was reached upon was reasonable - in which case, that figure can be paid put each day without supporting reciepts.

Yes, that clears the employer/umbrella, but the employee still has to "prove" he spent the money to offset the allowance he received from the employer/umbrella. This is a point that the umbrellas never tell you as it's nothing to do with them! The employee is well and truly stuffed when he can't produce proof of spending to offset expense claims and he's the one who gets the tax bill!

Murphy_The_Cat

Pennywise wrote: »

Yes, that clears the employer/umbrella, but the employee still has to "prove" he spent the money to offset the allowance he received from the employer/umbrella. This is a point that the umbrellas never tell you as it's nothing to do with them! The employee is well and truly stuffed when he can't produce proof of spending to offset expense claims and he's the one who gets the tax bill!

Hi Pennywise - I don't know anything about 'umbrellas' so I can't comment :beer:.
BUT I thought that the idea of agreeing figures with HMRC for Dispensation for expenses payments and benefits in kind was to do away with the requirement for every thing being reciepted ? Hence, it had to be a sizeable sample of employees, over a reasonable period and the figure had to be approved by HMRC. I've never gone in depth to study it as we don't have enough numbers to run a sample

In my situation, I own a Company with my wife and we both actively work in the Company, so we have taken the all reciepts, supporting evidence and expenses paid via BACS (not in cash) into our bank account route. Its a bit of a PITA to account for at times, but also fully supportable :beer:

stphnstevey

This seems to be a big problem at the moment with Umbrella companies competing against each other and promising very high expenses claims with no receipts or actual spend required because they have a dispensation.

However a dispensation merely means expenses agreed with HMRC do not have to be reported on P11D and employee's tax return.

However this does NOT mean that the employee can claim an expense that hasn't occured (ie a lunch allowance when no lunch was purchased) or hasn't been receipted.

I have only just become aware of this as my client offered to reimburse upto a set allowance for business trip lunches. I claimed the full allowance and took sandwiches.

I have only done this for two months so far and the expense is very small (£6 each).

However it is now going to be a pain to actually buy something on the day - I would prefer making my own sandwiches.

Murphy_The_Cat

stphnstevey wrote: »

This seems to be a big problem at the moment with Umbrella companies competing against each other and promising very high expenses claims with no receipts or actual spend required because they have a dispensation.

However a dispensation merely means expenses agreed with HMRC do not have to be reported on P11D and employee's tax return.

However this does NOT mean that the employee can claim an expense that hasn't occured (ie a lunch allowance when no lunch was purchased) or hasn't been receipted.

I have only just become aware of this as my client offered to reimburse upto a set allowance for business trip lunches. I claimed the full allowance and took sandwiches.

I have only done this for two months so far and the expense is very small (£6 each).

However it is now going to be a pain to actually buy something on the day - I would prefer making my own sandwiches.

My mention of dispensation seems to be taking the thread a touch OT, so I'll delete it to avoid that happening :beer:

I too enjoy prefer to take my own Bait Box, but if I'm away on business I bite the bullet and buy myself a lunch -- FWIW, I tend to buy it from a supermarket as my 'allowance' goes a lot further and I can mix/match exactly what I would like. Again, without taking the p*ss.

stphnstevey

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

My mention of dispensation seems to be taking the thread a touch OT, so I'll delete it to avoid that happening :beer:

I too enjoy prefer to take my own Bait Box, but if I'm away on business I bite the bullet and buy myself a lunch -- FWIW, I tend to buy it from a supermarket as my 'allowance' goes a lot further and I can mix/match exactly what I would like. Again, without taking the p*ss.

Wouldn't say so - all relevant to the original question

skyjumper

thanks guys

this post is becoming more useful than i actually thought
keep up the spirit

edwara

thank you to everyone hwo has posted on this. I am helping a friend who has set up a business with his accounts and have tried to find info about this on HMRc and failed. Will send him a link to this thread and help him.

Chris2685

stphnstevey wrote: »

This seems to be a big problem at the moment with Umbrella companies competing against each other and promising very high expenses claims with no receipts or actual spend required because they have a dispensation.

However a dispensation merely means expenses agreed with HMRC do not have to be reported on P11D and employee's tax return.

However this does NOT mean that the employee can claim an expense that hasn't occured (ie a lunch allowance when no lunch was purchased) or hasn't been receipted.

I have only just become aware of this as my client offered to reimburse upto a set allowance for business trip lunches. I claimed the full allowance and took sandwiches.

I have only done this for two months so far and the expense is very small (£6 each).

However it is now going to be a pain to actually buy something on the day - I would prefer making my own sandwiches.

I take my own lunch (sandwiches, or a tin of soup, fruit, crisps, chocolate, drinks, etc) to work and claim for it. I buy food from the supermarket and just keep the receipts for that.
Is this not allowed then?
If not then the last 13 months of doing this could come back to bite me in the !!!!! I don't see why this type of food is any different to buying it from an over-priced shop/cafe near where you work!