XMAS Over, time to plan for Valentines Day

[Weltchy]

I'm thinking of using the £150 xmas party tax allowance for bit of a valentines day excursion to Naples. Have done some research for costs, of which they are split into

Flights £244.40
Hotel £175.00

If I book this via expedia, the total cost will be slightly less due to discounts (About £10), however this will be one of their flight+hotel deals and therefore I suspect detailed on a single invoice with a single payment. I can book separately, which will come out slightly more expensive, but of course two invoices.

Therefore, I have a couple of questions.

How will this be dealt with from a VAT point of view, as the tax in italy is 10%, and how will this effect the flat rate scheme?

Must the total amount that the company intends to pay come to less than £300 total and be shown as such on any invoices? ie, if the company pays for the hotel, and a valentines day meal of say around £100!!!

Would you suggest that the company pays directly for this cost, or could the payment be made personally by an employee and then claimed back as an expense? Bare in mind that whilst the effect is the same, from a tax point of view, what is more legitimate?

Yours thoughts would be most welcome!!!!!

[TheFaQQer]

I think that this has been answered here:

http://forums.contractoruk.com/thread12914-%A3150.html

Answer seems to be "no".

Faqqer

[Sockpuppet]

My understanding is:

Under £150 a head do as you please. The IR may get suspect about a "party" to Italy though.

There is no VAT on international flights so cannotbe claimed back. You can claim back the VAT on the food / hotel but to be fair is it really worth the hassle and the form filling for £50.

[MrsGoof]

or you could ......
be going to Italy to see a potential Customer with the company secretary.

FFS I thought techies were supposed to be good lateral thinkers.

[Weltchy]

The issue is nothing to do with whether I can justify this as the provision of annual employee entertainment. If I remove the Italy part from my statement and said it was held in Scotland for instance, then it becomes a valid annual party.

Seems the issue is whether you can make a claim as it is abroad. I suppose I could give the local taxman an anonymous call and question him about this.

[TheFaQQer]

or you could ......
be going to Italy to see a potential Customer with the company secretary.

FFS I thought techies were supposed to be good lateral thinkers.

Yes - contractors don't take holidays, they have overseas interviews. It's amazing how good the contract market might be in (for example) the West Indies during the cricket world cup this year...