Claiming for food

[stek]

Real Ale fan?

Actually no, prefer my oddball lagers, North Bar, try some of the 14% stuff?

[oscarose]

Scabby Taps?

Opposite the train station?

[SimonMac]

Opposite the train station?

Yep (Scarborough Hotel for the no locals)

[oscarose]

Not far from Leeds either.
Count me in

[xoggoth]

Something even accountants don't seem to agree on

Accommodation and Subsistence

[Sockpuppet]

I thought lunch was not claimable as HMRC determined that you don't need to eat in order to work.

Also, I live in Leeds and work in London. I buy my food from the supermarket and claim it as an expense. If I wasn't working in London I wouldn't be have to buy the food so the expense is wholly related to the work. As I'm working away from home I guess this might be different.

Very interested to check out the lunch claims though as I currently don't calim these but would be very happy to if I can

So in Leeds you don't feed yourself? You only eat when working away?

[SueEllen]

I thought lunch was not claimable as HMRC determined that you don't need to eat in order to work.

There was a discussion about this before.

Self employed can definitely not claim them, there as for employees and company directors claiming lunch is a grey area.

In regards to supermarkets sometimes the nearest shop or only shop in an area is a supermarket. And as they sell everything and sometimes have a cafe it means if you go there every day you can claim, but if you are organised or have somewhere to store you food, even if it's the boot of your car because all you eat is pot noodles, you can't.

[Wanderer]

I thought lunch was not claimable as HMRC determined that you don't need to eat in order to work.

You are trying to apply logic to HMRC's rules - that doesn't work.

The rule is that if you take a meal while you are travelling or working away from home then it's claimable. So if you leave your house at 6am and don't get back till 9pm then you can claim breakfast, lunch and dinner if you eat them on the run.

What happened is that you incurred the expense because you had to take a meal while you were away. If you were at your normal work place (ie, at home) then you would have made yourself something out of stuff you had in the house. Since you were travelling you didn't have that option so you had to buy something while you were out.

• The fact that you have to eat anyway is not relevant
• If you took some food that you brought in your weekly shop at the supermarket and ate that then it's NOT claimable.
• If you choose to buy something while you are out and claim it on business expenses rather than taking a packed lunch, then that's up to you.
• Working away from home is working anywhere other than your "normal" place of work is your home office and HMRC accept that you are travelling from there to the client site, but after 24 months you can't claim for travel/subsistence any more as it's presumed that after this amount of time you should have relocated.
• The 24 month rule gets reset if you move jobs to a substantially different area (debated at great length in this forum)

[CheeseSlice]

The rule is that if you take a meal while you are travelling or working away from home then it's claimable. So if you leave your house at 6am and don't get back till 9pm then you can claim breakfast, lunch and dinner if you eat them on the run.

I don't agree with that, overnight - yes, but same day travel - no. Are you saying that your house doesn't have a toaster or the ability to make a sandwich...?

[Greg@CapitalCity]

I don't agree with that, overnight - yes, but same day travel - no. Are you saying that your house doesn't have a toaster or the ability to make a sandwich...?

Are you getting confused here with travel & subsistence rules as they relate to the self-employed - its a different kettle of fish for a Director. Remember that subsistence is the tax term for food and drink, and it can also refer to the costs of accommodation and incidental overnight expenses. When travel is allowable for tax, so are the incidental costs of travel (such as subsistence).