Can I claim expense estimates?

sh1202

Hello All,

I wonder if anybody can help me. I am an employed electrician and in the 2006/07 and 2007/08 tax years, I spent approx 170 nights working away on short jobs and staying in hotels each year.

Apparently I am able to offset the cost of my meals, whilst away, against my employment income and reclaim the tax from HMRC (we receive no allowance or reimbursement from our employer for the meals). However, as I did not realise that I could claim the cost of these meals until about five days ago, I of course did not keep the receipts.

Could I therefore estimate the cost? I estimate that three meals per day cost me in the region of £11. I complete a Tax Return and it would be here that I would enter the expense.

I have heard there can be penalties for not keeping adequate records although I think it would be a little harsh if they penalised me as I did not even know that the meals could be claimed!

Thanks for any help you are able to give.

James

fengirl_2

I assume you have already self assessed for those two years, so your claim would involve formally amending those returns.
Nothing to stop you estimating the cost providing you state that they are estimates and you can back your claim up with some sort of logic. You can be charged penalties for making inaccurate returns and this is the gamble you would need to take if HMRC decided to open enquiries on these returns in order to examine your claims. What else was on the original returns which might be open to challenge? HMRC wouls also want to know why yur emloyer was not reimbursing these costs. At the end of the day, its a gamble really.

max2009

I think for the amount of meals you would be claiming they would ask for receipts.A few years ago when i was driving abroad for work my accountant advised me to claim the maximum £10 a day for meals and save the receipts.He said you had to be at least so many miles away.

sh1202

Thanks.

I'm not sure why my employer doesn't reimburse the costs. We are given £30/night for the hotel, and usually we have to negotiate with the hotel/b&b a special rate, which doesn't include breakfast as £30 is not much.

There are some hotel costs (about 30 out of 170 days), which were taxed by my employer as we have to fill in a certain form so that they are paid tax free and I didn't fill this in for a few weeks, and about 15,000 miles of business travel, which is the figure given to me by my employer (who reimburses me at 15ppm and I claim the excess back). So I would have thought that it should be pretty safe.

Most jobs are far from home, as in all over UK, otherwise we do not get any hotel expenses and so stay at home. I assume that my employer would be able to just run off a list of the jobs in the year.

So I hope it would be ok if I had an enquiry? I think the only thing open to question is the amount I spent on meals each day, they can't deny the fact that I have to eat! Or can they just say you have no receipts so no claim?

Thanks

James

fengirl_2

Yes, it is up to you to substantiate your claim, not for HMRC to disprove it. No harm in trying, but when your refund is processed, keep it in the bank in case an enquiry follows and you have to pay it back.

Baz_2

If you can provide proof that you were working away and the amounts you are claiming are reasonable then you do not need receipts.

So if you have work logs or records available to show you were away on the dates you are claiming then you will be fine.

If you are claiming estimated nights away and not specific dates then you may be pushing it.

I would suggest going through your diary or work logs/ time sheets etc and working out exact days and places and working from there using reasonable, hotel and food costs to put in a claim.

If your hotel costs are more than your allowance from work you can claim the full cost against tax. i.e they give you £30 but hotel costs £40 and you spend £20 on food you can claim £30 against tax.

askakd

I thought the OP was employed on PAYE in which case you can't claim expenses against tax. Sorry, this is something to take up with your employer, not the taxman

Baz_2

askakd wrote: »

I thought the OP was employed on PAYE in which case you can't claim expenses against tax. Sorry, this is something to take up with your employer, not the taxman

Incorrect, if you are an employee that is required to spend nights away you can claim travel and subsistence directly related to the business.

See HMRC Book 490 Employee travel

askakd

i stand corrected, my mistake