Tax free dinner?

PGM

I put this in chat as its not particularly serious...

I went out for dinner with some friends, and one came up with the idea of having a restaurant review "business".

So he could claim the meal cost and mileage as a business cost!

I suppose you would need some long term plan of bringing in revenue, but an interesting thought still.

AK002

Do you think a gym membership would be allowable in that line of business :P

JaffasGirl

Isn't that what mystery shopper companies already do? Lol think they may have beaten your friend to it!

zara5034

I go to a Breakfast Business Club, its a weekly event for small businesses to come together and network etc over breakfast. So does that count?

PGM

zara5034 wrote: »

I go to a Breakfast Business Club, its a weekly event for small businesses to come together and network etc over breakfast. So does that count?

Probably, I'd hardly consider it a frivolous thing to go to. So a ligitimate marketing expense?

Monsoon

People should not umm and arr over breakfast networking as an allowable expense. Of course it is!

As to the OP, yes, as someone else has said, it's mystery shopping. As long as you could market your reviews back to the restaurants or whatever they do, it would be a business!

Luby

Jaffas quote

“Never call an accountant a credit to his profession; a good accountant is a debit to his profession.”

Doesn't this imply that credits are always negative? Which is not necessarily the case ? sorry bored

PGM

Monsoon wrote: »

As to the OP, yes, as someone else has said, it's mystery shopping. As long as you could market your reviews back to the restaurants or whatever they do, it would be a business!

Or a website / blog.

Could also charge home office expenses as costs.

It just feels like a tax loophole to me!

Monsoon

PGM wrote: »

Or a website / blog.

Could also charge home office expenses as costs.

It just feels like a tax loophole to me!

Only if you are actually trading. If you're not generating real income then it would be classed as a hobby trade and any losses would be disallowable against other income in the same year. Arguably if you were doing it through a Ltd Co, the very nature of a Ltd is a trading vehicle and there might be greater scope for offsetting losses against other profits in the same year. But HMRC would want to see you making the effort of profiting from it (in financial, not culinary terms!)

PGM

I agree with you there Monsoon.

There must be a fine line between trading and / hobby trade in many instances.

Do you know exactly how they differentiate the two?

Monsoon

PGM wrote: »

I agree with you there Monsoon.

There must be a fine line between trading and / hobby trade in many instances.

Do you know exactly how they differentiate the two?

Badges of trade, I guess. Intention to make profits. Going concern? I've heard it said that after x years of losses they will consider it a hobby trade regardless of other badges of trade, but haven't seen anything official to that end.

PGM

Monsoon wrote: »

Badges of trade, I guess. Intention to make profits. Going concern? I've heard it said that after x years of losses they will consider it a hobby trade regardless of other badges of trade, but haven't seen anything official to that end.

Oh yes the badges of trade, how sooon you can forget these things!

Good points though! They will weed out the hobby trade.

Monsoon

I also don't think it would work if you kept 'reviewing' your favourite pub at which you eat every Tuesday

anniem

I don't think I would want my waistline audited ....... even if it was only annually!!!!!!!