Heard today that as of next April companies giving out tax free meal allowances and overnight parking are going to have to keep evidence that the money has been spent on this i.e. Receipts,that will balls stobbies and their £25 tax fiddle,erm I mean meal allowance up that they use to top up the wages to get their lads above £10ph.
If its true it will be more than just stobarts that will be giving out a payrise in april then.
I’m guessing the Government must be pretty hard-up if they want to start taxing us whenever we eat a meal.
I agree with the change to be fair.
“Night Out Allowances” have never been part of a wage, they are to cover the costs of food and showers etc. whilst working away from home.
Sadly, the majority of trampers count it as part of their “Wage” and in reality, it is a reimbursement/allowance for expenses.
Like the op states, pay packages hopefully will change, but for the smaller companies, and those that don’t care less, the “verification” that HMRC are asking for will just be fudged.
Harry Monk:
I’m guessing the Government must be pretty hard-up if they want to start taxing us whenever we eat a meal.
And I expect you to find the loophole harry ,Just as you did with the parking fines 
SEDriver:
I agree with the change to be fair.“Night Out Allowances” have never been part of a wage, they are to cover the costs of food and showers etc. whilst working away from home.
That’s my point. Why should a driver have to pay tax on having a shower, or submit a receipt so that some stuffed shirt can check that he did actually have a shower? If a driver has to pay more for his food on the road than he would do if he ate a home-cooked meal then why should he be taxed on that?
This is a serious attack by the Government on terms which have existed since time immemorial, and we shouldn’t just roll over and allow our tummies to be tickled.
I thought this had been settled a year or so ago, and evidence didn’t have to be receipts, but could be evidence that the driver had a night out, using things like time sheets, parking receipts or tracking information.
If they’ve moved the goalposts drivers will need to put in claims for bedding and washing the bedding, cooking equipment, eating utensils, meals, drinks, receipts for shopping before going away, etc as I believe it’s expenses on things like this that night out money was supposed to cover.
I can see SEDriver point that it would stop drivers taking their night out money as part of their pay, but I think it will cause everybody far more issues not only in extra paperwork, but also in disagreements between drivers and accounts departments about what can be claimed for and what can’t, also expenses are open to abuse.
Harry Monk:
SEDriver:
I agree with the change to be fair.“Night Out Allowances” have never been part of a wage, they are to cover the costs of food and showers etc. whilst working away from home.
That’s my point. Why should a driver have to pay tax on having a shower, or submit a receipt so that some stuffed shirt can check that he did actually have a shower? If a driver has to pay more for his food on the road than he would do if he ate a home-cooked meal then why should he be taxed on that?
This is a serious attack by the Government on terms which have existed since time immemorial, and we shouldn’t just roll over and allow our tummies to be tickled.
Couldn’t agree with you more on your last point there Harry, If this really does happen, then time for the English driver to take action. It certainly wouldn’t go unpunished here in France if the government suddenly decided to tax subsistence payments.
Harry Monk:
SEDriver:
I agree with the change to be fair.“Night Out Allowances” have never been part of a wage, they are to cover the costs of food and showers etc. whilst working away from home.
That’s my point. Why should a driver have to pay tax on having a shower, or submit a receipt so that some stuffed shirt can check that he did actually have a shower? If a driver has to pay more for his food on the road than he would do if he ate a home-cooked meal then why should he be taxed on that?
This is a serious attack by the Government on terms which have existed since time immemorial, and we shouldn’t just roll over and allow our tummies to be tickled.
Also it’s a Glass house and stones situation when you go back to the expenses fiasco of the MPs .
Just look at the drain on the economy of all their ‘legitimate expenses’ (…yeh right 
) incurred on their gravy train.
Some of them amount to a years salary of an HGV driver, so surely their is room there for a rethink also, although I won’t hold my breath.
It’s fine for those arse wipes to continue to have their fat snouts in the trough, but easier to clamp down on drivers having a meal and a ■■■■ shower. 
So if you can’t prove a legitimate expense incurred, you have to pay tax on it. I take it all the cook in the cab on industrial estate drivers are going to be hit the hardest then
I’ve no doubt with politicians being fine, upstanding folk of the highest regard they will have no problem with this tax applying to them also.
SEDriver:
I agree with the change to be fair.“Night Out Allowances” have never been part of a wage, they are to cover the costs of food and showers etc. whilst working away from home.
Sadly, the majority of trampers count it as part of their “Wage” and in reality, it is a reimbursement/allowance for expenses.
Like the op states, pay packages hopefully will change, but for the smaller companies, and those that don’t care less, the “verification” that HMRC are asking for will just be fudged.
If your night out allowance is on your wage slip some government agencies count it as income too i know that from when i tried to claim WTC
But i would sooner have the tax free N/O and meal allowance than be taxed more, I’m not gonna pay more to support the invading muzrat manchild’s they are importing
robroy:
Harry Monk:
SEDriver:
I agree with the change to be fair.“Night Out Allowances” have never been part of a wage, they are to cover the costs of food and showers etc. whilst working away from home.
That’s my point. Why should a driver have to pay tax on having a shower, or submit a receipt so that some stuffed shirt can check that he did actually have a shower? If a driver has to pay more for his food on the road than he would do if he ate a home-cooked meal then why should he be taxed on that?
This is a serious attack by the Government on terms which have existed since time immemorial, and we shouldn’t just roll over and allow our tummies to be tickled.
Also it’s a Glass house and stones situation when you go back to the expenses fiasco of the MPs .
Just look at the drain on the economy of all their ‘legitimate expenses’ (…yeh right
Some of them amount to a years salary of an HGV driver, so surely their is room there for a rethink also, although I won’t hold my breath.
It’s fine for those arse wipes to continue to have their fat snouts in the trough, but easier to clamp down on drivers having a meal and a [zb] shower.
What with the expenses that MP’s get and enormous allowances MEP’s get, our meagre expenses pale into insignificance, do you remember years ago when if you worked out of the country for so many days a year you could claim tax back, originally set up for businessmen and MP’s us lorry drivers thought I’ll have some of that and worked out at a nice 5/6 hundred pound rebate cheque at the end of the year which back then was quiet a bit, Mr Thatcher didn’t like us commoners getting that and soon put the block on it , we cant win.
Ossie
Harry Monk:
I’m guessing the Government must be pretty hard-up if they want to start taxing us whenever we eat a meal.
yep, Brexit , mate, what else did you expect?
money needs to be found somewhere, to bribe Nissan to stay here, cut corporate taxes to stop others leaving,and others to follow.
Someone has to pay for it all, and who is it gonna be, yep, you guess it right, the common people, the Brexiters, but after all, common people, new what they were doing when they voted for Brexit, didn’t they?
anon84679660:
Harry Monk:
I’m guessing the Government must be pretty hard-up if they want to start taxing us whenever we eat a meal.yep, Brexit , mate, what else did you expect?
money needs to be found somewhere, to bribe Nissan to stay here, cut corporate taxes to stop others leaving,and others to follow.
Someone has to pay for it all, and who is it gonna be, yep, you guess it right, the common people, the Brexiters, but after all, common people, new what they were doing when they voted for Brexit, didn’t they?
What ■■■■■■■■.
When in doubt blame Brexit.
Meanwhile those vile gasbags in westminster expect to be be able to cream off a fortune in freebies and expenses on taxpayer funded junkets to ‘research’ subjects about which they would neither understand one iota, nor be able to repeat what they have heard so long as their fundamental orifice points downward.
Why oh why isn’t Guido Fawkes alive today to do us all a favour?
cav551:
Why oh why isn’t Guido Fawkes alive today to do us all a favour?
didn’t his mission fail and wasn’t he part of a terrorist plot trying to impose his religion on the Country? 
anon84679660:
Harry Monk:
I’m guessing the Government must be pretty hard-up if they want to start taxing us whenever we eat a meal.yep, Brexit , mate, what else did you expect?
money needs to be found somewhere, to bribe Nissan to stay here, cut corporate taxes to stop others leaving,and others to follow.
Someone has to pay for it all, and who is it gonna be, yep, you guess it right, the common people, the Brexiters, but after all, common people, new what they were doing when they voted for Brexit, didn’t they?
This was on the cards long before the referendum, the HMRC have been carrying out a review of workers tax free allowances for a little while now, no doubt as part of the governments austerity measures to claw back as much as they can, instead of taxing their friends or closing up their tax loopholes.
I think the genuine night out drivers will be alright, it’s firms like an ex employer of mine that might have explaining to do. I got meal allowances and never did a night out, I never even had a sleeper cab. I did leave when I had a couple of letters from HMRC, thought it strange that I’d never heard from them before or since.