I thought about claiming more but was advised not to, theres different rules too, depending on how many hours your away from the depot & start & finish times etc , its all on the hmrc website if type lorry drivers in the search box , but if you claim for more than the 2 a day you need to show proof , it takes the ■■■■ though because £2 a day doesn’t get you a meal in any way shape or form , its been the same set rate since the 80’s , they don’t tell you what you can claim for either or they would be paying back thousands, I also claim £60 for washing work wear & £120 for buying workwear as a driver at a builders merchants it comes under their construction terms , its their set rates for the job category, again I had no problem, just sent a basic letter asking for the set rate as defined by them , they didn’t ask for receipts or proof , they just changed my code so now I get an extra £660 tax free allowance each year, 60 for washing , 120 for buying & 480 meal allowance based on 48 week working year taking into account your 20 days paid holiday…
They obviously don’t like me as when I put in my laundry allowance I told them I was a crane operator / driver in the construction industry and they only paid me the £22 rate or whatever. Furthermore they reckoned I’d underpaid tax on PAYE but as it was under a threshold they wouldn’t seek to recover it.
They did on the other hand adjust the meagre payment in respect of it.
I also asked for my tachograph card fee to be added into it and copied my card to prove when I ordered it. They seem to have ignored that as well.
I fought them for two years and they do try to frustrate you by sending you info like the one about not having receipts. I repeat we all (250) got paid out without receipts. obviously if you don’t know you are entitled to an allowance you won’t have saved receipts.
You may be asked to provide proof from your employer that you are away from home and qualify, e.g. Night out allowance, remember this DOES NOT COVER MID_DAY MEALS. you may have to save receipts, in my case for about 3 or it may have been 6 months to prove the point, but think about it, the last thing the IR wants is to be swamped every year by tens of thousands of fiddly bits of paper for piddling little amounts of money by tens of thousands of Lorry Drivers. It is ultimately in their interest to agree an annual allowance with you. Which is why some drivers now receive allowances of a decent size, it is possibly worth hundreds of pounds to you, (see some of the previous posts from drivers.)
I don’t understand this talk of £2 payments. You are entitled to tax relief on the full cost of any meal you have to spend your money on as a result of your job. I can only think that as some companies pay a reduced meal allowance towards to their drivers costs the IR. have seized on this as a get out on the cheap clause.
In my previous post I pointed out that the Chief inspector of Taxes in Leeds at the time who was appointed especially to deal with the claim tried to implement the same, which was why I ended up in front of the Tax Commissioners, their appeal body, and they agreed with me. You have to persevere.
If the Trade unions were interested in protecting drivers they would have sorted this out years ago, but they are only interested in themselves not their members. I and some other drivers raised the point with our MPs and when they took on board that Lorry Drivers were the same as Salesmen or Reps, they asked questions in Parliament and it was this intervention which pressurized the Inland Revenue to concede a point.
Good Luck.
Don’t forget shaving allowance as part of your job as well ( food ! ) 
Just had my request declined,so why are some getting it and others not? is it to do with who opens your letter as I wrote mine exactly how the Kemaro said.
Winseer:
Won’t they want proof of what days you’ve worked or not over the past year? And receipts?If this were an automatic amount paid out just for “being a professional driver” for the past tax year, then surely we’d all be automatically getting it against our pay already?
Even if they do, it will be available in your employers records, so you don’t have to bother.
kemaro:
Seems some people are having trouble claiming back for their mid day meal allowance , I simply wrote a letter as follows ,Name
AddressDear sir or madam ,
My name is (insert name ) & I have been employed as an hgv driver with (company name) since (date you started) my d.o.b is (date) & my N.I .number is (…) .
I would like to claim back the £2 a day midday meal allowance as stated in emi66150 & emi66140, if you have any questions regarding this please contact me on (insert number)
Thank you ,
quote]Two quid ■■? … what do you have for dinner ? A packet of crisps ?
I would spend at least 10 a day on my dinner.
Pat Hasler:
kemaro:
Seems some people are having trouble claiming back for their mid day meal allowance , I simply wrote a letter as follows ,Name
AddressDear sir or madam ,
My name is (insert name ) & I have been employed as an hgv driver with (company name) since (date you started) my d.o.b is (date) & my N.I .number is (…) .
I would like to claim back the £2 a day midday meal allowance as stated in emi66150 & emi66140, if you have any questions regarding this please contact me on (insert number)
Thank you ,
quote]Two quid ■■? … what do you have for dinner ? A packet of crisps ?
I would spend at least 10 a day on my dinner.
I know , but that is the allowance they give you. It’s a joke
Maybe the £2 is to allow for the amount ABOVE the normal amount you would have to pay for a midday meal, after all we tend to eat 3 meals a day whether we’re at work or not. Seems pretty fair to me I think I’ll give it a go.
How can you tell if this is already part of your tax code ? Think i’ll apply for it anyway they rob me enough all year round
sorry to drag this old thread back to the surface.
I finally got round to submitting a claim for midday meal expenses and received a reply very similar to the one posted by skippy70. Mine came from the local compliance centre.
Has anybody appealed the decision and on what grounds other than “a few guys on a forum said they got theirs”?.
I can argue the fact that having been unaware of the allowance i had no reason to keep receipts or records of expenditure but the inference of the letter is that I’m not entitled to claim relief on midday meals in the first place.
Is there a “next step” or is it a case of if you get it happy days, if its rejected tough luck?.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Cheers
Neilf
This is whats on HMRC website’s at the moment
PAYE70265 - PAYE operation: specific employments: lorry drivers - meals
See the Employment Income Manual (EIM) at EIM66140+ for what to allow.
Give a provisional coding allowance where you first allow a claim to relief. Send the following letter at the same time.
‘A provisional allowance for expenditure on meals taken away from your home and depot has been given in the notice of coding for [Year].
I shall need to see evidence of your expenditure on meals during the year ended 5 April [Year], as soon as possible after that date so that I may check the provisional allowance given. The amount of relief that can be allowed will depend on the bills and vouchers submitted in support of your claim. Such evidence should be retained by you from the date you receive this letter, and in the absence of such records, I shall have to withdraw the provisional allowance given.
If your employer pays you an allowance towards the cost of meals, please give details when sending me the bills and vouchers as relief will be due only on the net cost.
You should continue to keep bills and vouchers for your expenditure on meals in future years so that any provisional coding allowance for later years can be confirmed after the end of the tax year.’
When you have agreed the final amount of relief due for any year
Review the provisional coding allowance given for the following year
And
Amend it if necessary
Do not give any provisional coding allowance for years following that in which a claim is refused, for example because evidence of expenditure is inadequate.
I think there basically saying you need receipts they have probably taken this stance due to the amount they have paid out, however I will send the letter off and see what happens
The £2.00 per day meal allowance was an agreement in the 1980’s between the RHA/FTA and the Tax man for mobile workers, rather like your tax free ‘night out money’. It was a payment your employer would give to you before you were taxed on your earnings. This amount has never increased as your company can now apply directly to HMRC for a dispensation rate equating to the £5.00 breakfast, £5.00 short day, £10.00 long day tax free meal allowances, the only difference is you have to provide receipts (or other proof) for amounts up to the dispensation rate and HMRC have to accept your companys application. I think all the companies paying their driver £5.00/£10.00/£15.00 per day in meal allowances without providing receipts will be in trouble if HMRC come knocking on the door !
Judging by posts on here there are lots of drivers getting these allowances without proving they have actually spent a penny ! Remember you can only claim an expense if you have spent the money in the first place unless you are claiming for the old agreement of £2.00 per day.
There is info on the HMRC website about the £2.00 rate, I’ll try to find it and post a link.
hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/eimanual/EIM66140.htm
hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/eimanual/EIM66145.htm