Claiming for Food When Working Away

Alz0r

Hi all,

I'm self employed, working as a sub contractor, away from home Mon-Fri.

My question is, can I claim for food bought at the supermarket during the week?

I've had conflicting opinions on this, the inland revenue website indicates that it is, but I got the impression it was only for occasional trips away, not if you're working permanently away from home?

Cheers!

Mikeyorks

Covered on this recent thread?

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2185723

TM1976

If you are working at a temporary workplace, ie you will move to another place before 2 years you can claim for subsistance whilst away from home.

It's slightly more complicated than this though as you can claim for preprepared food like a meal out or a sandwich but you can't claim for food you are going to prepare yourself. ie you could claim for a sandwich but not for bread, butter and some cheese and make your own.

In addition to this you can claim up to but not exceeding £5 of incidental overnight expenses which could be newspapers, dry cleaning etc.

Lambrusco_Cowboy

I worked for a company which moved around the country from job to job but i was never closer than 100 miles to home. I also had no access to normal kitchen facilities whilst doing these jobs and therefore had to buy pre prepared meals everyday for two months. do you think i could claim these back?

Pennywise

For self employed, rather than directors of their own limited company, the rules are a lot more strict. At one time, HMRC wouldn't allow any subsistence costs for self employed, but now say that anything outside the normal working pattern can be claimed for. So in your case, your normal working pattern is working away every day, so I'd say that no, you can't claim anything at all.

If you were a director of your own ltd co., the answer would be different. Then you can claim for subsistence, but only for a temporary workplace - if you know you're going to work at the same site for 24 months, you can't claim from the moment you know you'll be there for 24 months or more.

Either way, HMRC generally don't allow normal food bills from shops or supermarkets. They argue against this on the grounds that you're paying no more than you would have paid if you were eating at home. By contrast, they do allow bills from cafes/restaurants etc on the grounds that you are incurring more costs because you don't have cooking facilities etc, i.e. if you're staying in a hotel or guest house.

Lambrusco_Cowboy

it wasnt my usual work tho just something i did for a short burst, and also as i was staying on hotels all the time i didnt have access to kitchen facilities. On the HRMC site it suggests that itinerant workers could claim for food costs? To be honest tho i dont think i spent much more than a fiver a day which you are allowed to claim anyway for general expenses if i understand things correctly

TM1976

TM1976 wrote: »

It's slightly more complicated than this though as you can claim for preprepared food like a meal out or a sandwich but you can't claim for food you are going to prepare yourself. ie you could claim for a sandwich but not for bread, butter and some cheese and make your own.

In addition to this you can claim up to but not exceeding £5 of incidental overnight expenses which could be newspapers, dry cleaning etc.

You can claim for preprepared food as above. There is no distinction between what you can claim for as a Ltd Co. Director and a soletrader, you just have to justify that it's a business expense (in the case of any further questions being asked). If you work away and you have to buy meals out this is a business expense as you wouldn't have had to incur this cost had you not had to work away.

If you buy food and make a meal this isn't a business expense as you have to do that anyway if you were at home.