It says on the HMRC site you can claim for things like food & booze on business trips but would a say trunking run without overnight sleep but for an extended period of time (10+ hours / day away) qualify as a ‘‘business trip’’ for the purpose of claiming tax on work expenditures, like if you like to eat at McD every single chance you get like a proper trucker 
ETS:
It says on the HMRC site you can claim for things like food & booze on business trips but would a say trunking run without overnight sleep but for an extended period of time (10+ hours / day away) qualify as a ‘‘business trip’’ for the purpose of claiming tax on work expenditures, like if you like to eat at McD every single chance you get like a proper trucker
In a word: Yes…There are allowances and rules about it.
That is how some companies offer tax-free meal allowances. (And some infamously disguise that as part of daily pay!)
It is on the HMRC .gov somewhere.
Franglais:
In a word: Yes…There are allowances and rules about it.
That is how some companies offer tax-free meal allowances. (And some infamously disguise that as part of daily pay!)It is on the HMRC .gov somewhere.
Yes but this is on the part of the employer, however as an employee if you claim for yourself you might have to produce 200-250 McD’s and Costa receipts from the year past if challenged on it?
ETS:
It says on the HMRC site you can claim for things like food & booze on business trips but would a say trunking run without overnight sleep but for an extended period of time (10+ hours / day away) qualify as a ‘‘business trip’’ for the purpose of claiming tax on work expenditures, like if you like to eat at McD every single chance you get like a proper trucker
You can claim meal allowances on business trips however you must have proof of payments, in other words a receipt. You can’t for example take a packed lunch and put in a claim. The amount you claim are flat rates.
Breakfast rates: A standard rate of £5 can be paid if you are leaving the house earlier than usual and before 6 a.m.
One meal rate (five hour rate) – A standard rate of £5 can be paid if you are away from home or your normal place of work for more than 5 hours.
Two meal rate (10 hour rate) - A standard rate of £10 can be paid if you are away from home or your normal place of work for a period of at least 10 hours.
Late evening meal rate (irregular late finishers) – A rate up to £15 can be paid if you have to work later than your usual working hours.
HOWEVER you can only claim it when you’re not in your usual place of work. You may not be able to claim it as a lorry driver because your lorry is your normal place of work.
Here’s a web page that explains it…
finmo.co.uk/sole-trader-what-fo … n-i-claim/
‘Subsistence’ is the term HMRC gives to any food and drink expenses that arise out of necessity, from a business perspective (this bit’s important – more on it below).
Eating to live: why you can’t claim for everything you eat while working
HMRC’s definition of subsistence doesn’t include the food and drink you consume day in, day out while working. To understand this it helps to look at HMRC’s ‘dual purpose’ rule. This basically says that if something is necessary for reasons that aren’t work related, it can’t be claimed as an expense – even if that thing also benefits you in a business sense. In a nutshell:
Humans need to eat and drink to survive. So the costs associated with what we eat and drink in our normal day-to-day working lives can’t be classed as ‘wholly and exclusively’ for business. Because we kind of get a lot of personal benefit from that too (aka: not perishing).
HMRC’s rules around subsistence do mean you can claim food and drink bought on a business trip as an expense. This is because it classes this kind of expenditure as ‘wholly and exclusively’ for business purposes.
Even though you ‘need food and drink to survive’, HMRC is happy in the knowledge that you’re only buying that particular meal in that particular place because you’re on a business trip. It’s extra to your day-to-day living costs and quite often costs more than you’d normally pay. So it’s allowable as an expense.
A couple of examples…
It’s important to understand the difference between HMRC’s definitions for a ‘normal place of work’ and ‘temporary place of work’. This is because any food or drinks you buy on the way to, and during a day at your normal place of work cannot be claimed as a business expense. Food and drink you buy on the way to, or during a day at a temporary place of work can be claimed (within reason).
A normal place of work… is the: “place at which an employee works is a permanent workplace if he or she attends it regularly for the performance of the duties of the employment.”
A temporary place of work… is classed as such: “if an employee goes there only to perform a task of limited duration or for a temporary purpose.”
Here are two examples explaining how these two definitions affect food and drink expenses:
Richard has a business meeting with a customer in a different city. It’ll take him most of the day to travel there and back because it’s a two hour train journey each way. When he arrives he goes to a cafe to have some lunch before his afternoon meeting.
Richard can claim this as an allowable expense, as he’s travelling away from his normal place of work to a temporary place of work.
Lucy is a freelance writer and spends a lot of time working in cafes in her local town. One day, she decides to meet a client at one of her regular haunts for lunch to discuss a new project.
Lucy can’t claim this as an allowable expense as the meeting is taking place in a regular place of work for her. She’s also in her local town, so could technically have had lunch at home before or after meeting her client.
Our lorry cab is our normal place of work so I would argue that Lucy’s example is more like us than Richard’s so not claimable.
As usual it’s a bit of a minefield when it comes to lorry driving. Unfortunately claiming for it on a P87 and being paid out is not a way of saying you were entitled to it because HMRC is very lax in doing any checks and you could find yourself down the line having to repay what they paid out. Also remember that it’s tax relief on what you claim. So if you claim £10 a day as a basic rate tax payer HMRC won’t give you £10 they’ll give you £2. And if you don’t earn enough to pay any tax at all they’ll give you £0.
It might be worth spending an hour with a TAX accountant to go over it with them and see what they have to say about it and if possible get them to put it in writing so if you ever do get queried by HMRC you can say you took advice which you followed.
Conor:
HOWEVER you can only claim it when you’re not in your usual place of work. You may not be able to claim it as a lorry driver because your lorry is your normal place of work.Here’s a web page that explains it…
finmo.co.uk/sole-trader-what-fo … n-i-claim/
Our lorry cab is our normal place of work so I would argue that Lucy’s example is more like us than Richard’s so not claimable.
I would argue thta a lorry is to us not a place of work but a company provided vehicle with wich we carry out work-related tasks, like transporting or collecting goods etc. Our normal place of work would be the place we go to to collect the vehicle and begin actually carrying out our work
Also I’m not trying to claim as a sole trader or LTD but as private taxpayer aka PAYE employee
I’ve read around a bit and it seems to ME that Mr. Franglais is more likely correct however I probably won’t be doing it as I never saved any receipts. Some payments I made by card so I could prove those via bank statements, I might try for them
This is the start page for PAYE claimants
Friend of mine who drives gas Tankers gets £4:32 every shift tax free as a meal allowance that he doesn’t have to provide a receipt for.
Stobarts pay the £15 meal allowance do they not [emoji2369]
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ETS:
It says on the HMRC site you can claim for things like food & booze on business trips but would a say trunking run without overnight sleep but for an extended period of time (10+ hours / day away) qualify as a ‘‘business trip’’ for the purpose of claiming tax on work expenditures, like if you like to eat at McD every single chance you get like a proper trucker
You said “can claim for things”
I think the point is in our case as truckers we cannot claim anything. It’s only if our employer provides an allowance or reimburses actual expenditure that it would possibly (as in most definitely) not be taxable.
But no we cannot just claim £5 a day nor our MaccyD receipt against PAYE.