LPA Claiming travel Expenses - Can't find a definitive answer after speaking to the OPG

HermanMunster72

Apologies if this is the wrong forum.



I’m traveling four hundred miles, every other weekend, carrying out my duties as an attorney for my father. From reading the OPG website, and speaking to them, I can see that it’s legal to claim travel expenses. What I can’t find out is how much can be claimed. The OPG indicated I should look to the HMRC for guidance but the figure on 45p per mile seems excessive and not necessarily appropriate to my situation.


Can anyone offer any advice?


Thanks in advance.

LilElvis

The 45p/mile (for annual mileage up to 10k, 25p/mile thereafter) is the maximum an employer can reimburse an employee without it becoming a taxable benefit. These are therefore the maximum figures deemed to be reasonable levels of reimbursement, but employer's can, and do, choose to reimburse at a lower rate. This figure isn't just designed to cover fuel but also the increased servicing, repair and depreciation caused by the additional mileage. If the OPG pointed you towards the HMRC rates it would appear that they consider that it would be reasonable for you to claim at those rates - whether you wish to claim less would therefore be your decision.

TBagpuss

I agree with LilElvis, it sounds as though they are likely to view anything up to 45ppm as reasonable, but if you chose to claim less you are free to do so.
bviously one thing you might want to factor in is how much of the travel you are doing is necessary for you as his attorney, and how much is stuff you are doing becuase he is your father.

I wouldn't normally expect actung as aan attorney to require in-person attendance once a fortnight, as most financial issues etc can be dealt with online or by phone or post, once the arrangements are set up, so you might find that useful in deciding which trips it is reasonable for you to claim for your travel as attorney, and which are trips which you are making primarily to spend time with your dad, and where the fact thatyou also take the opportunity to carry out work as his attorney is incidental to the trip and could have been done from a distance .

HermanMunster72

Those are important points which have been raised. Thanks for the reply’s.

Savvy_Sue

something else to consider is who will benefit from your father's estate once he dies? Because if you're sole beneficiary, then who is going to care whether you claimed 5p per mile for a monthly trip, or 45p per mile for a weekly one?

Of course this does not remove the requirement that you act in your father's best interests. And if your father is paying for residential care and the money runs out, then various people and organisations WILL care about how fast the money has been spent.

And if you are NOT the sole beneficiary, then it would be worth considering what the other eventual beneficiaries might think was reasonable.