expenses

[brasi12345]

This is my first 'working away' contract since starting my ltd just under a year ago.
My accountant is telling me I can only claim for evening meal and that this must be one receipt, when i was at an umbrella i could claim, justifiable expenses if away, i.e. breakfast, lunch and dinner.

When working away what do other contractors claim for? and has anyone been caught?


also the 150 per year per employee 'meeting' expense you can claim, again i though this was 150 per employee throughout the year, so multiple occasions as long as it did not exceed the 150?

Appreciate help from more experience contractors

[northernladuk]

I aint no experienced contactor but I know how to use the search button!!!

http://forums.contractoruk.com/accou...t=evening+meal

http://forums.contractoruk.com/accou...t=evening+meal

http://forums.contractoruk.com/accou...t=evening+meal

http://forums.contractoruk.com/accou...t=evening+meal

[sweetandsour]

This is my first 'working away' contract since starting my ltd just under a year ago.
My accountant is telling me I can only claim for evening meal and that this must be one receipt, when i was at an umbrella i could claim, justifiable expenses if away, i.e. breakfast, lunch and dinner.

When working away what do other contractors claim for? and has anyone been caught?


also the 150 per year per employee 'meeting' expense you can claim, again i though this was 150 per employee throughout the year, so multiple occasions as long as it did not exceed the 150?

Appreciate help from more experience contractors

So, give me a moment to make sure that I have understood.

1. You are paying an accountant to advise you on the costs that you can expense to your limited company.

2. You don't like the answers that your accountant gives you so you ask a bunch of strangers on the internet.

What are you going to do if we say something different to the answer that you get from your accountant?

Your accountant provides a guide to expenses - it is here in case you haven't been able to find it yourself. http://www.sjdaccountancy.com/about/..._expenses.html

When you were with an umbrella you could claim daily amounts from them because they had a dispensation that allowed them to pay your expense claims without seeing receipts.

If HMRC ever decide to inspect your tax returns they will want to see the receipts.

You do still have all the receipts don't you?



The £150 annual party allowance can be spread throughout the year but the total must not exceed £150 per person. I never bother with this.

[Maslins]

The rules are a little grey. HMRC can argue that food is never "wholly and exclusively" for business purposes, because as humans we need food to live. Typically though if you incur significant additional costs on food because of business, the cost will be allowable.

If you're staying in a hotel for work, they don't expect you to make sandwiches to take with you, and therefore accept that you'll probably spend a lot more on dinner than you would if at home.

In summary, you can typically claim meal costs whilst you're away, but if you take the mickey and go to Gordon Ramsey's every time, you can expect HMRC to ask questions.

As for your other question, the £150 you refer to is probably the "staff entertainment" allowance, anything above which becomes a benefit in kind for the employee. This can be made up of several things during the year.

[moorfield]

I think the easiest thing is to claim a per diem rather than individual items.

IIRC Nixon Williams advise £10/day (or £20/day abroad) without receipts.

[Bob Jones]

If you are operating your own limited company a daily allowance (scale rate) is not acceptable, under any circumstances and if found out you are in trouble. Scale rates have to be agreed with HMRC, and in the case of someone running their own company, unless it can be shown that there is an adequate (in the view of HMRC) independent audit of the expense, which is highly unlikely if you are running your own company, HMRC will not agree to a scale rate -and if they have whoever in HMRC has agreed to it should never have done so ....
With correct professional advice the area is not grey - we eat in order to live not in order to work but if the duties of the employment dictate that more is spent on food than would otherwise have been the case then the extra is allowable. In reality it is impossible to quantify the extra so, as long as it can be demonstrated that more has been spent then the whole of the expense is allowable provided that the associated journey is allowable. In other words if you are travelling in the performance of the duties of the employment or to a temporary workplace the travel expense is allowable and the cost of travel includes necessary subsistence.
All this is covered fully in my allocated area of Contractor Alliance - http://www.contractoralliance.co.uk/...ctor_expenses/
Regards
Bob

[TheFaQQer]

When you were with an umbrella you could claim daily amounts from them because they had a dispensation that allowed them to pay your expense claims without seeing receipts.

No - they had approval from HMRC to pay using a scale rate, so they could pay a daily rate. Dispensation just means that you don't need to declare the expenses for particular category, so they don't need to appear on a P11D and then be claimed back.

[TheFaQQer]

I think the easiest thing is to claim a per diem rather than individual items.

IIRC Nixon Williams advise £10/day (or £20/day abroad) without receipts.

I think that there is a separate category for incidental expenses that you can claim without a receipt. That's slightly different from the original question about what can be claimed.

When I was permie, we were allowed up to £5 a day for being away as personal incidental expenses (newspapers etc.).