Overnight Allowance

shaunie

Hi Experts, I am hoping some can help not only myself but everybody I work with.

The compnay I work for have recently change our T&C's
We no longer get paid for overtime although ware still expected to work more hours.
We where warned back in Nov\Dec last year that this would happen and that our salary would be reviewed and adjusted to compensate this, This never happened.

Also we have company credit cards and used to use these for meal expenses.
We have now been told that we cant do this on our new contract and that we will be given £35 per night we are away. However as the majority of our work is done abroad and wealthy areas we dont believe that this is enough, we work in places like the French Riveria Monaco Cannes Dubai ect ect and £35 per night just isnt enough to cover our expense, Can we claim anything from the goverment or tax man?

From experience of a previous company we were given £50 per day abroad.

Also with the new overnight expenses we get its only payable if we have a hotel booked for that night. So for me take this week I set off Monday morning at 9 am and wont be home till Tea time Friday.
This means I am away for four night and five days, I get four over night allowances yet I am away for five days what am I supposed to do for the fith day ? pay it out of my own pocket?

Thanks for any comments that can help

fengirl_2

Tax relief is due on the actual cost of staying away from home ovenight and for meals taken whilst away. There is a lot of stuff on the HMRC website about this, including this:
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/eimanual/eim66125.htm

You will need to keep records of journeys as well as receipts for expenditure and make a claim at the end of the tax year.

nexuss

What kind of work do you do and do you fly to france or drive ?

harryhound

IMHO lorry drivers are a bit of a special case.
Just try claiming their allowances if you are a white van man and see how you get on, especially when it comes to day time meals. Even the lorry drivers get a relatively minimal allowance, when compared with what the food actually costs. Make your own sandwiches seems to be the Revenue's attitude.
"White collar" people such as computer contractors tend to get a hard time too. .

nexuss

Harry i used to do white van driving abroad and claimed £10 a day for meals no problem for 3-4 years via my accountant.

shaunie

Hi,

Thanks for the comments, However I am not a lorry driver. I am an IT engineer.
A previous company I worked for used to pay us £50 tax free per day when I worked in Abu Dhabi and I was wondering if this was the norm for expenses.

Thanks
shaun

shaunie

nexuss wrote: »

What kind of work do you do and do you fly to france or drive ?

Nexus I work in IT and Comms. its not just France that I work in it could be Germany Holland Italy USA ect ect. I work on super yachts so the areas in which I stay are usualy quite expensive areas, and £35 per overnight allowance just wont be enough sometimes.

I was wondering if I obtained reciepts would I be able to claim something back legally either from my emplyer or tax man should I go over the £35 allowance I am given.

Also as we only get the allowance if we stay over night in a hotel I sometimes get back late like this week. I set off on Monday at 9am and I arrived back this evening (Friday) at 8pm. so I have been away 5 days but only had 4 overnight allowances which I have had to stretch to last me 5 days.

Usualy I fly to places but when I am in Holland I take my car as I live about 20 mins away from the ferry terminal.

Thanks

nexuss

Shaun formule1 hotels are usually cheap and are of travel lodge standard in europe.Most rooms will hold up to 3 people and the price is for the room.Keep all the receipts you are given for food and hotel stay.
You should be able claim around £10 a day for meals taxwise if you have to pay for your own food.Anything over the £35 for the hotels you should be able to claim for too.

http://www.hotelformule1.com/formule1/index.html