Self Assesment - Rebate for fuel, hotel stays & meals

ChinBobble

Hi,

first time self assessor here, trying to claim a rebate on my expenses last year. I think I've got my head around the mileage rebate. I did 6900 miles, company payed me 30p per mile, so I reckon thats a £137 rebate, which I've managed to get the online form to calculate correctly. However the link on the internet that wised me up to mileage rebates also implied you can claim back on hotel stays and meals?

My background:-

I'm employed by a company
Last year my hotel & meal expense came to £2565.84. This was roughly £35 a night for the hotel and £5-£8 on food. The company I work for reimbursed me the full amount. Should I be able to get some kind of rebate on that?

And if so, what parts of the self assessment onlien form should I be filling out?

Thank you in advance for any advice.

Regards,
Nick

PlutoinCapricorn

Maybe it's because it is getting late, but I am confused.

Are you registered as self-employed? if not, why are you thinking about self assessing? If you work for a company, they should reimburse you if you are out of pocket in the course of your work. reimbursement is not remuneration, so no tax is involved. It is self employed people who offset legitimate business expenses against income.

A few employees do claim rebates if they have to clean their uniforms at their own expense, but HMRC prefer employees to arrange payment of expenses with their employer.

ChinBobble

My apologies, I was vauge, let me expand my background

I'm employed full time as a site manager
I use my own car instead of a business car

When I went to claim my business mileage rebate back, I filled out a P87, however due to my fuel expenses and hotel/meal expenses totalling almost 5k, HMR Tax & Revune sent me a letter advising I had to fill out a self assessment.

I agree. It's mad, but them's be the rules apparently!

edit- I guess my question is, if business mileage is 40p per mile for the first 10,000 miles, so only getting payed 30p per mile entitles me to a rebate, is there something similar regarding hotels and meals. Does the taxman allow £XX per night, so if your company gives you less you can claim a similar rebate?

PlutoinCapricorn

Oh, that makes things much clearer. You are on PAYE but do not get full reimbursement from your emloyer so are seeking it from HMRC.

Unfortunately, although I myself do my own tax returns I am self employed, have never had a car so don't understand the mileage rules. I hope that someone else on MSE can be of more help, I have seen a few questions about cars and mileage.

As for hotel rooms and meals, again I am not much use to you. Self employed people just keep the receipts and deduct the full amounts from their income.

You have until January 31st to get the figures for 2008/09 ready, although the sooner you file the sooner you get the rebates. I advise filing online. I never use the Employment section, but assume that there are boxes for the expenses. If you google "business mileage rebate" you will pull out some background info; many people say that HMRC are very helpful when you phone them with questions such as yours.

System

If your company reimbursed you the full amount for your hotel and meals then there is nothing more to claim.
£137 seems about right for the tax relief on 6900 miles @10p per mile.

ChinBobble

cool, thank you for the advice

PlutoinCapricorn

You may have noticed an old post by Wonka that has been updated very recently. It covers mileage in great detail, it is a very confusing subject.

I agree that if your employer has reimbursed you in full for something, you can't expect a rebate from HMRC too.

ChinBobble

I understand the fuel one to be honest it's quite straightforward pity the HMR website isn't so straightforward when it comes to the areas that they might have to pay you a rebate on

TM1976

I agree witrh all the other posters.

All of the relief here is if you are out of pocket for work expenses, so if you got £50 a night for stayin away from your employer but it cost you £100 you could claim relief on the difference. If you are fully reimbused you aren't out of pocket so you can't claim.

You don't need to do self assessment as your net expenses are below £2,500 so you can claim though a P87 which is a lot easier.