Missed Flight: Would you claim?

[GillsMan]

OK, here's the scenario:

My last working day was 19 December last year and I had a flight booked to go to a family wedding on 20 December. On the morning of 20 December, two of my clients came to me with some work they asked if I could do that same day, advising that it was urgent. I completed the work and attempted to make my flight, but as I'd had to leave my house so late due to the work, I missed my flight and had to book a new one at some considerable expense.

So, would you claim for the rebooked flight through your company?

I'm in two minds currently. On the one hand, the flight was clearly for personal reasons, so I don't think the company should reimburse me for personal flights and I, as Company Director, made a choice to do the work. On the other hand, 20 December was a personal day off, but I could argue that my employer (MyCo Ltd) asked me to come in to undertake this work, causing me to miss my flight.

Not that it should make much difference, but the amount MyCo invoiced as a result of completing the urgent work for two clients is comfortably more than the cost I had to bear personally for the rebooked flight.

[northernladuk]

Doesn't matter if work delayed you or not, it's still a personal flight and that is how it will look on the books if you are investigated. I would say it's all down to your attitude to risk though. Put it though and keep your head down if you really want but it's only a 20% saving really so I wouldn't bother.

[GillsMan]

Doesn't matter if work delayed you or not, it's still a personal flight and that is how it will look on the books if you are investigated. I would say it's all down to your attitude to risk though. Put it though and keep your head down if you really want but it's only a 20% saving really so I wouldn't bother.

Thanks. I'm fairly risk averse so would err on the side of caution if that was the consensus here. Obviously I'll be seeing what my accountant makes of it as well, but wanted to see what the LtdCo directors on here would do.

The closest real world scenario I can come up with is a former client of mine needed one of their permie staff to fly to Singapore as part of an IT launch. However, she had a holiday booked in Malta and would have been flying home on a Thursday, whilst her employer wanted her to fly to Singapore on the following Monday. She stated that she didn't want to do so much flying in a short space of time. Her company ended up paying for her to stay in her hotel in Malta for an extra couple of days, and then paid for her to fly directly from Malta to Singapore.

Of course, the scenario isn't directly comparable to mine at all, but there is an element here where the employer paid for a small portion of her holiday to facilitate their desire that she flew to Singapore on a particular time.

[VectraMan]

OTOH if a third party company caused you to miss your flight for some reason, you might reasonably expect compensation. It doesn't seem unreasonable that your employer should compensate you for the loss to you by you unexpectedly having to work, and that money would come from company funds.

[northernladuk]

Thanks. I'm fairly risk averse so would err on the side of caution if that was the consensus here. Obviously I'll be seeing what my accountant makes of it as well, but wanted to see what the LtdCo directors on here would do.

The closest real world scenario I can come up with is a former client of mine needed one of their permie staff to fly to Singapore as part of an IT launch. However, she had a holiday booked in Malta and would have been flying home on a Thursday, whilst her employer wanted her to fly to Singapore on the following Monday. She stated that she didn't want to do so much flying in a short space of time. Her company ended up paying for her to stay in her hotel in Malta for an extra couple of days, and then paid for her to fly directly from Malta to Singapore.

Of course, the scenario isn't directly comparable to mine at all, but there is an element here where the employer paid for a small portion of her holiday to facilitate their desire that she flew to Singapore on a particular time.

But that is completely different. That is the client spending money to fulfil a need, not about taxable benefits. The client can spend what they want, doesn't mean they can claim it against tax. They probably did but that is another argument.

If your company pays but you don't put through any tax benefit would be a closer fit to that scenario but then why would you do that? Pull a bit more out of divi's instead possibly but that's all.

[SimonMac]

Does the invoice for the extra work cover the cost of the flight? If so forget about it and take a bigger dividend off

[Clare@InTouch]

I think you'd be hard pressed to argue that you were forced to work late by your employer when your employer is you. That makes it personal choice, not a necessity.

On the other hand, if I had a flight to catch and had to work late then I would expect my employer to compensate me for it if they wanted me to stay, but that could be in the form of a bonus that would be enough to compensate for the extra hours and the flight cost (and a bonus would be taxed, it wouldn't just be a direct payment to the airline).

For what it will save in tax, I wouldn't bother.