Any views on Subsistence- food expenses?

fengirl_2

It does not matter how the lunch is procured - ready made or DIY. The point is that the expense must be incurred in the course of your duties, ie when you are away from your normal place of work.

Murphy_The_Cat

Chris2685 wrote: »

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!

fengirl wrote: »

It does not matter how the lunch is procured - ready made or DIY. The point is that the expense must be incurred in the course of your duties, ie when you are away from your normal place of work.

Chris/fengirl

if I've read this correctly
"
Allowable UK subsistence expenses
Common sense flies out of the window when it comes to sandwiches! HMRC say that they do not consider that the cost of a packed lunch prepared at home from items purchased as part of the employee’s ordinary domestic shopping arrangements, or other food brought from home (see EIM31818) are allowable expenses for the purposes of the scale rate reimbursement. However, the cost of sandwiches, etc, bought on the way to a temporary workplace can however be included. I suppose that employers should really check postcodes on receipts to see where the sampled employees purchase their snacks, but I doubt whether anyone will in practice.


then doing what you are doing is outside of what is allowable and could well and truly bite you in the bottom. It might be worth a quick call to your accountants AND the HMRC helpline to clarify the situation.


If I can find a better link, I'll let you know.

Chris2685

Thanks Murphy... I'm knackered then. Unless they decide not to check me within 6 years anyway :S
Do you get a penalty for staying quiet? I don't mind paying the tax back eventually if I have to, but would rather not in the mean time!

It is pretty damn unfair that the food I purchase for work is not an allowable expense

I wonder if it would be more worthwhile for me to buy food for myself every day rather than bring it in in this casE?

Murphy_The_Cat

Chris2685 wrote: »

Thanks Murphy... I'm knackered then. Unless they decide not to check me within 6 years anyway :S
Do you get a penalty for staying quiet? I don't mind paying the tax back eventually if I have to, but would rather not in the mean time!

It is pretty damn unfair that the food I purchase for work is not an allowable expense

I wonder if it would be more worthwhile for me to buy food for myself every day rather than bring it in in this casE?

I'm not an accountant/HMRC inspector, so I'm not talking from a position of knowledge. TBH, I'm a touch surprised that your own accountant hasn't mentioned it to you already, as its something that I thought that he would pick up on.
I recently had my first HMRC compliance visit in over 20 years, so it may well not get picked up on, but when tje Inspector came to see me, she was VERY keen to see my travelling expenses & sustinence cliams for the period. So if you do get a visit, its unlikely to be missed. However, she only asked to see the paperwork for the PREVIOUS year, so if the same thing happened to you, once its lapsed by a year, it may not be found with a cursory inspection (but obviously picked up with an in depth view).

From a taxation/expense POV, you would be a lot better off buying your food each day (as long as you qualify for it), but its going to cost the Company a LOT more, for you to eat a LOT less. If you workf for yourself, it may be worth paying yourself a larger dividend each month and simply providing your own food -- and buy a meal/sandwiches from time to time to keep something going through the books. OR, if the Company can stand it, buy your food each day and just accept that its going to cost the Company a lot more to feed you.

good luck.

Chris2685

Thanks for the advice Murphy, but I'm not a self-employed contractor as such. I am using an umbrella company who have a scale rate agreement for the maximum we can claim for food, and how many meals per day we can claim for.

Of the top of my head, I think a normal working day is a max spend of £9.20 (or thereabouts) and that is for 2 coffee breaks and a lunch break.

I have always submitted these expenses as a rough average, so I put the same amount each day.

I check with the Umbrella Company before I started doing this, and they have never told me to do otherwise. As I am paying them to provide me with a service, I imagine they should advise me correctly as to whether this should be allowed or not!

I have never had to submit a sustenance receipt to them like I have with petrol receipts...

It would be so much easier just to have a regular employment and not have to bother with all this lol.

Murphy_The_Cat

Hello Chris

then I could be talking complete bunkum. I don't know anything about Umbrella Companies, nor how they work. If I've given you duff advice, I'm genuinely sorry.

Chris2685

Thanks for your advice anyway, it's made me think..

It seems many of my questions are answered here:
http://www.contractorumbrella.com/umbrella_companies.html#1

Murphy_The_Cat

Ah, I see.

so if a 'regular' employee can't claim for home made sandwiches, then someone on an umbrella scheme can't claim either then.
The umbrella company is simply a means to an end.

Chris2685

Well I can claim for food bought for 2 years it seems, under current law (which i have heard is likely to change anyway). I am still not sure about the whole home made sandwiches part though lol.

The other thing I am worried about if I don't make a claim, is that HMRC will suddenly wonder why the hell I'm not claiming for food and will then do a check.

Murphy_The_Cat

Chris2685 wrote: »

Well I can claim for food bought for 2 years it seems, under current law (which i have heard is likely to change anyway). I am still not sure about the whole home made sandwiches part though lol.

The other thing I am worried about if I don't make a claim, is that HMRC will suddenly wonder why the hell I'm not claiming for food and will then do a check.

As I understand it, as long as the food purchase complies with your requirement to be away from your usual place of work etc, etc, you are OK. But for payment of homemade food, you are not.

As for stopping your expense claims for your sandwiches, I don't think that would be picked up by anyone, especially of you replace them with reciepts from Greggs Bakery etc