Travelling with work - what expenses can I claim back?

InsideInsurance

Lunch tends to depend on where you are going. If you are going to another office of your company and they have a staff canteen then lunch normally isnt allowable. If your going to offsite meetings or with a client/ supplier then lunch normally is.

Given the hours of travel the 3 daily meals would normally be allowable with a drink with each. Entertainment between meetings wouldn't be.

You really wouldn't look an idiot asking as every company has its own policy and limits.

Mistral001

If it is a small firm you need to be careful. I have worked for small and big firms and expenses varied quite a lot. In the big firms, if there was not a written policy, then generally colleagues would discuss what was allowed and not allowed and everybody knew.

With the small firms I found that basically you aimed low and even be prepared to be out of pocket for fear of upsetting the apple cart so to speak. The guiding principle with small firms is that you should not be claiming any more than what the owner of the firm is claiming against his/her tax. It annoys some owners of firms to find out that their staff are claiming more in expenses than they are. You cannot ask what the owner is caiming against tax, but I suppose you can get an idea by the way they keep reciepts at resturants, car parks etc.

In saying all that, some owners will encourage staff to be liberal with their expenses claims as a sort of way of supplementing a low salary tax free (to staff member), but that is more the exception than the rule and is generally mentioned at the interview stage if that is the case.

smileylondongal

You really do need to ask - you won't look stupid as it's a completely valid question! I would want to know how much I was entitled to spend before taking a trip.

scheming_gypsy

smileylondongal wrote: »

You really do need to ask - you won't look stupid as it's a completely valid question! I would want to know how much I was entitled to spend before taking a trip.

He will, he flew out today and estimated that he'd be back home an hour ago... He'll look a bit silly if he asks tomorrow