Gift or Expense: Can deliveroo and uber trips count as expense for inheritance purposes

deepmystic11

Hello,

My father is in a care home. I am regularly ordering Deliveroo meals for him when I am there and also taking uber to and from the care home on his request to see him so i can provide care assistance. If my father reimburses this, will this count as an expense rather than a gift with regards to inheritance tax. 

Thanks in advance for your help.

SVaz

I’d say expense but can you not pay for things from his bank account instead of your own?  

Brie

Crucial thing would be to keep records. So even if you pay from your account - you pay uber then transfer the exact amount from dad's account.  That way it's all traceable.  

And a question - why is this an issue?  Are you worried about HMRC, local authority finance team, greedy relatives?

GrumpyDil

Probably the main question is whether the estate will be liable to pay inheritance tax as if it is under the limit it's a non issue. 

Marcon

deepmystic11 said:

Hello,

My father is in a care home. I am regularly ordering Deliveroo meals for him when I am there and also taking uber to and from the care home on his request to see him so i can provide care assistance. If my father reimburses this, will this count as an expense rather than a gift with regards to inheritance tax. 

Thanks in advance for your help.

If your father reimburses you then it's not a gift: it's a reimbursement. Unless you are talking about many thousands of pounds, which seems a bit unlikely(!), it's a complete non-event in respect of IHT. Your father can spend his money how he chooses while he's still alive (and of course can give £3K a year in gifts in any event). 

SVaz said:

I’d say expense but can you not pay for things from his bank account instead of your own?  

Quite. A prepaid debit card bought with your father's funds, and used exclusively for costs he has asked you to incur on his behalf, would make life easy and obviate the need for detailed record keeping unless you really do get into multi-thousand territory.