Subsitance claims

We have the same policy and it is a HMRC guideline.

PGM wrote: »

Its a good tax relief to claim, as long as you can prove;

"Travel expenses include subsistence costs attributable to the journeys."

Always a strange one, wouldn't he eat if he stayed in the office....

That's exactly how I've always felt - you'll always eat three meals a day, what difference does it make where you eat it?

HMRC's website at http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/paye/exb/a-z/t/travel.htm#1 explains that business travel costs include subsistence costs, such as meals.

Then HMRC's helpsheet 490 gives a bit more guidance, explaining that payments to employees must be made to the extent that the expenses are actually incurred (see para 5.3)

However, HMRC’s guidance at BIM47705 says that employee expenses are only allowable if they are incurred ‘wholly and exclusively’ for business purposes. Seeing that everybody needs to eat, it is difficult to argue that a lunch expense has been incurred ‘wholly and exclusively’ for business purposes.

That guidance then caveats that by saying that there will, though, be occasions where an employee or director incurs additional costs for lunches and the like, such as where an occasional business journey is required (i.e. where it is not in the course of the individual’s normal working day to make such a journey). In which case, modest expenses are allowable. (See BIM47705 mentioned above).

So as I see it, if the guy is always out of the office, then I don't see that HMRC will allow any subsistence, whereas if he's usually office based then subsistence on those occasions when he is out of the office will be allowed.

Have I read that right, do you think?

Yeah I have a couple of clients who have a dispensation - very useful! However I've not applied for any recently and I understand they're difficult to obtain now.

deanshepherd wrote: »

Every single client of mine has a dispensation and I find they are issued as a matter of course now, whereas previously it was down to luck of the draw which tax office dealt with the application.

Actually, now that you mention it, I'm pretty sure my thinking that it's now tricky was because of an article in our favourite tax journal!

deanshepherd wrote: »

Haha.. it must be true!!

Actually, and I'm not kidding, when you said yours go through fine, my thought process was literally "where did I here that then..? Oh yes, in that magazine... it's probably wrong then, go with what Dean said."