meal allowances

bbarroso

Not quite sure this is the best place...

As part of my duties I often have to travel away from my place of work, and as such, I'm given a daily meal allowance. Problem here is that I suffer from food intolerances and I'm not always up to try something I don't know the origin of and risk getting in a uncomfortable situation with the customer.

I very often buy some food myself or simply bring it from home, but whilst doing so I effectively loose my tax free meal allowances. So would I be able to claim reasonable costs from a bill from a supermarket, rather than a restaurant, for food items? I cant seem to find any references as to what I am allowed to claim back as a 'meal'

Many Thanks

Dazed_and_confused

This doesn't make sense.

You travel and get a daily meal allowance - isn't it this allowance you would be using to buy the food you actually eat, whether it be away from home or to make something at home.

What costs have you incurred which you are out of pocket for?

TheCyclingProgrammer

The costs of a meal prepared at home and taken to work are not tax deductible. You have to eat to live anyway.

The cost of subsistence for employees travelling on business or working at a temporary location can be tax deductible in most circumstances but that has to be a cost incurred as part of your travel. This doesn't include food prepared at home.

p00hsticks

bbarroso wrote: »

would I be able to claim reasonable costs from a bill from a supermarket, rather than a restaurant, for food items?

At my old employment we would have been happy to accept a supermarket receipt for something like a 'meal deal' sandwich, snack and soft drink as an acceptable meal expense - often there was no opportunity to actually visit a sit down restaurant for lunch (and the lunchtime meal allowance was only £5 anyhow).

But you are best asking your particular employer as to what is and isn't acceptable to them.

bbarroso

Dazed_and_confused wrote: »

This doesn't make sense.

You travel and get a daily meal allowance - isn't it this allowance you would be using to buy the food you actually eat, whether it be away from home or to make something at home.

What costs have you incurred which you are out of pocket for?

As mentioned, I suffer from food intolerances and would rather prepare my own food or read the labels in supermarket food than to get a menu at a restaurant, given I cannot control what goes inside.

In preparing food, I'm guessing it can be a tricky one, everyone needs food and drink to survive, so I'm not quite sure how I can justify HMRC’s general rule when it comes to claiming a bag of apples as being “wholly and exclusively” for the purposes of trade.

TheCyclingProgrammer wrote: »

The costs of a meal prepared at home and taken to work are not tax deductible. You have to eat to live anyway.

The cost of subsistence for employees travelling on business or working at a temporary location can be tax deductible in most circumstances but that has to be a cost incurred as part of your travel. This doesn't include food prepared at home.

The above describes why I prepare at home or buy from my pocket. I'm not trying to claim back on home made food, I'm trying to understand, without getting my doctor involved(!) how I can use my allowance to actually buy something that wont make me sick.

booksurr

bbarroso wrote: »

I'm trying to understand, without getting my doctor involved(!) how I can use my allowance to actually buy something that wont make me sick.

please explain exactly what you mean by "allowance"

a) the company says you can spend up to £x per day on "food"/ restaurants/cafe????

b) the company pays you are round sum amount per day and does/ does not require you to produce receipts to prove you spent the money on "food"

the tax implications depend on what you mean by "allowance"

Pennywise

The point of the tax-allowable meal claim is that it usually costs a lot more to buy a meal whilst working as opposed to making your own at home. In theory, only the difference should be claimable, but HMRC for once are pragmatic and realise that the calculations would be too onerous for such small amounts, so they allow the full cost of a cafe/restaurant meal as long as it's within reasonable tolerance amounts, i.e. you won't get away with lunch at a Michelin restaurant!

If you make and take your own meal, then you aren't incurring any additional cost compared with just staying at home, hence nothing is allowable.

Your reasons etc don't change these fundamental basic rules. Getting your GP to write a letter won't make a jot of difference.

Darksparkle

As above, how this "allowance" is given affects the tax.

However for info - EIM31815:

"A deduction is only allowed for subsistence costs which are attributable to the business travel i.e. costs incurred in the course of the journey which are additional to any costs that the employee would ordinarily incur if they were not travelling on business. For example a deduction would be allowed for the cost of a sandwich purchased at a station whilst travelling on business but not for the cost of a sandwich prepared at home and consumed whilst travelling as this is not a cost incurred in the course of the journey. Further examples can be found in EIM31817 and EIM31818."

See example 2 here - https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/employment-income-manual/eim31818

agrinnall

It seems pretty clear that the HMRC rules allow you to claim for items purchased at a supermarket or other provider while you are away from home, so you need to check with your employer if they will allow it - I've done it many times myself and never had a problem getting the claim paid.

bbarroso

The company allows a certain allowance on restaurant bills, refunded by producing a copy of the receipt.. Anything above the allowance is to be covered by myself.

The topic I want to cover is restaurant meals, (catering/restauration), versus purchased food, such as ready meals, fruit or non alcoholic drinks which are typically classed as grocery, rather than a meal.

Essentially, I'm under the assumption I can dine or lunch out, but have to pay out of my pocket if I decide to go into a shop and buy a ready meal or some fruit as a snack.

Agrinnall, what do you mean 'it seems pretty clear'? Do you have some references on this matter? Thanks

Darksparkle

bbarroso wrote: »

Agrinnall, what do you mean 'it seems pretty clear'? Do you have some references on this matter? Thanks

What's wrong with the one I posted?