Claiming for lunch costs

MrCarrot

I thought I would bring this one up just to see what people thought. It seems to me there is a total misconception about self employed people claiming for food.

I hear people saying they are a contractor and can claim anywhere between £2 - £10 a day for lunch.

Personally, I see food as a requirement of life, not a requirement of doing business. Whether you were employed, self-employed or unemployed you still need to eat. If you have to go to a clients and are away from your normal work premises for the day, I would have thought you'd take a packed lunch or pay for lunch out of your own pocket the same as any other employed individual would. If you have an overnight stay I can imagine this is somewhat different.

If you were EMPLOYED (as opposed to self-employed) and you filled out a tax return at the end of the year claiming for bread and cheese towards your packed lunch because you were not at home to eat, I doubt it would go down too well :rotfl:

RayWolfe

Most companies will reimburse the cost of lunch if they ask you to work away from your home AND place of work.

PlutoinCapricorn

As a self employed person, I have never claimed any meals as expenses. I have never been away from home on my freelance business, so the situation has never arisen.

As an employee, I did occasionally get bills paid by the company when I was required to stay in a hotel. Snacks were supplied when people worked late, and I have used subsidised restaurants.

As a volunteer in charitable organisations I did get my lunches reimbursed on presentation of receipts. It is a way of ensuring that volunteers get something to eat at no cost to themselves.

I do agree that people need to eat anyway, and are expected to pay for this out of their earnings.

MrCarrot

Sometimes I buy my clients lunch - for example if we have a meeting at my offices I will perhaps spend around £30 in sandwiches and drinks, etc.

While I pay for this out of company funds, am I right in thinking this falls under "client entertainment" and cannot be submitted as a claim for tax purposes?

missile

It depends on your circumstances, for me buying lunch whilst working away from my normal place of employment may be claimed, but buying lunch for others can not. Speak to your accountant a good one will advise on this and and several other ways to avoid tax.

If you are in any doubt, do not be frightened to ask the Inland Revenue.

egrid1

There have been some challenges made by the Inland Revenue against this sort of claim. Claiming for lunch as a business expense, where you are not staying away from home overnight is generally not considered to be claimable because of the "duality of purpose".

John_Pierpoint

Last thing I hard was that Lorry drivers have a modest greasy spoon cafe type of agreed figure with HMRC.

Any

Our engineers (spend all the time on road) only get paid 1 meal IF they are away from home for more then 10 hours...

So for normal day - no. If they are working overtime (traveling far away) then yes.

TM1976

This is basically the same as for mileage.

If you go to a permanent place of work you can't claim for a lunch but if you get sent out to a temporary location you can.

You can't claim for your mileage to and from work but you can claim for your mileage to and from a temporary location.

Many employers have a flat lunch allowance that they pay out tax free without needing reciepts etc.

It's not really about being fair it's just the rules.

If you buy a pre-prepared lunch you can claim for that but you couldn't claim for bread/butter/cheese if you were preparing your own lunch, whether your employer chooses to reimburse you or not.

John_Pierpoint

What ever happened to Luncheon Vouchers - Ah happy memories