Reply to: Problematic flights to conference and expenses

[Old Greg]

Which one.. or is that a non question?

Schrödinger's Darren.

[northernladuk]

He used Darren as his travel agent.

Which one.. or is that a non question?

[Old Greg]

Did he go on the trip? Has he been investigated by HMRC?

I hate stories with crap endings!

He used Darren as his travel agent.

[Batcher]

Did he go on the trip? Has he been investigated by HMRC?

I hate stories with crap endings!

[northernladuk]

Glad that's been put to bed.

No

The gentleman doth protesteh too much. Smells fishy.

[Old Greg]

Just checking, you're not Darren Upton, are you?

No

Glad that's been put to bed.

[Darren at Fox-Bartfield]

Accountant

No

[BillHicksRIP]

We did a newsletter article on training costs a couple of months ago (link) that may be of interest following a tribunal case.

Just checking, you're not Darren Upton, are you?

[Pondlife]

What you, as director, spend company money on and what yourco can offset against corp tax can be different things entirely. And whether either of those first two constitute a BIK to yourself is another matter again.

[MrMarkyMark]

Thanks for posting that link.

The company is paying for the conference but the article seems to be talking about a deduction on a personal tax return? Also, while the conference is putting on a day of training, I didn't purchase that.

As I said, I'm the director and I've determined this is in best interest of the company. No issues with finances.

There's the answer you were looking for, go for it

[concord]

Thanks for posting that link.

The company is paying for the conference but the article seems to be talking about a deduction on a personal tax return? Also, while the conference is putting on a day of training, I didn't purchase that.

As I said, I'm the director and I've determined this is in best interest of the company. No issues with finances.

[Lance]

More important is this document someone posted above: https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-man...anual/eim31960

I always thought conferences were fine but according to that page "it needs to be demonstrated that attendance was necessary to carry out the duties of the employment of the person attending."

Have a board meeting and mandate an employee to go.

[Darren at Fox-Bartfield]

Training Costs

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-man...nual/eim31960: "Expenditure incurred by an employee to improve his or her qualifications for doing the job, or to keep his or her knowledge up to date, are not deductible"

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-man...nual/eim31990: "The neurologist’s employer encourages her to attend and the conference is directly relevant to her work. ... No deduction can be permitted for the cost of attending the conference. Attendance at the conference is not necessary expenditure"

To be honest, I'm not 100% what those documents are. They are marked "internal". The way I see it is that I'm the director and I decide what the duties are, and they are in line with what promotes the long term success of the business.

We did a newsletter article on training costs a couple of months ago (link) that may be of interest following a tribunal case.

[concord]

I'm not anticipating any issues but those documents are interesting.

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-man...nual/eim31960: "Expenditure incurred by an employee to improve his or her qualifications for doing the job, or to keep his or her knowledge up to date, are not deductible"

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-man...nual/eim31990: "The neurologist’s employer encourages her to attend and the conference is directly relevant to her work. ... No deduction can be permitted for the cost of attending the conference. Attendance at the conference is not necessary expenditure"

To be honest, I'm not 100% what those documents are. They are marked "internal". The way I see it is that I'm the director and I decide what the duties are, and they are in line with what promotes the long term success of the business.

[Yorkie62]

[QUOTE=concord;2300370]

More important is this document someone posted above: https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-man...anual/eim31960

I always thought conferences were fine but according to that page "it needs to be demonstrated that attendance was necessary to carry out the duties of the employment of the person attending."
/QUOTE]

Personally I don't see what the problem with attending conferences is under these rules. As a systems engineering consultant and a member of INCOSE, and someone who has a seat on one of the INCOSE UK working groups I attend both conferences and working group meeting's as a business expense. It about keeping you skills upto date in the particular sector you work in and comes under the general umbrella of training.
However I suspect that HMRC might take a differect view point if I were to try to claim attendance at the Adult Entertainment conference NLUK eluded too. Unless of course I could prove that my next gig might be in that industry sector.

As long as it is pertanent to the sector you work in there should be no problems.

Of course there has to be the usual caveats. Can your Ltd Co afford this as an expense, etc.