How do I claim this?

[TheFaQQer]

In March, I'm doing some training in India for a few weeks. The course fees include all the hotels etc. but do not include flights to get there or back.

My wife (company secretary and also Creative Director) also wants to come so we're going to book a week out there for both of us in advance. She'll then come back and I stay on for the course. The cost of a single flight for me is approx £480 round trip, but so that we get the break in advance, I've booked a package holiday for both of us, and then a flight home for me after the course.

I intend to claim for the course and the return flight, but can I claim for all / part of the break beforehand, since it includes the flight that I would need to take anyway to get there? Could I (for example) claim what it would have cost me to get there, even though the receipt clearly shows a different value?

TIA,

Faqqer

[Sockpuppet]

No. How can you prove "what it would have cost you".

In any case you can only claim expenses that you incur not ones that you would have incurred if xyz hadn't have happened.

[Pondlife]

You may be on thin ice claiming the flights at all. IIRC expenses must be incurred "wholly and exclusively" in the course of your business.

But I would ask your accountant for a qualified answer.

[TheFaQQer]

I'll take a slightly different tack - my wife's company makes and sells hand-made crafts / needlework type things. If (whilst out there) she goes to the market to buy supplies / products, can she claim her part of the expenses?

Think it's pushing it, but if I can claim it, I will.

You may be on thin ice claiming the flights at all.

Does that mean that I shouldn't claim the flight home?

TIA,

Faqqer