Staying at friends house expense

[matzie]

I understand that £25 can be claimed staying overnight at a friends rather than a hotel, but i wondered if the £5 personal incidential expense could be claimed ontop of this also?
Anyone know?

I think you should be pretty careful about "the £25". EIM05231 says, "A benchmark rate has not been set for a scale rate payment for staying with friends and family. Furthermore, HMRC no longer accepts that a scale rate payment for this purpose should be agreed with an employer as part of a dispensation. The travel rules still apply to actual costs of subsistence incurred while staying with friends and family. " If you're using an umbrella who have a current dispensation featuring this, you're probably OK.

As for "the £5", again this isn't a flat-rate "entitlement" but the maximum amount an employer can repay tax-free for overnight incidental expenses. For a given trip, if the total such sum reimbursed is greater than ( (nights away) * £5 ) , then the entire payment is taxable (not just the excess). And, of course, the total reimbursed should be equal to (or less than) the amount spent, and whether or not your employer wants to see receipts, you'd be very wise to keep them. There's a worked example here: EIM02770.

Hope that helps

Matt

HTH

[Clare@InTouch]

I can't see any reason why not on the HMRC website, but I've not come across the situation in practice before. Logically I would imagine that if you can claim it whilst staying at the Hilton, you can claim it whilst staying somewhere cheaper.

Class 1 NICs : Expenses and allowances : Incidental overnight expenses (previously Personal incidental expenses or PIEs) : Evidence required

[chrisl]

I understand that £25 can be claimed staying overnight at a friends rather than a hotel, but i wondered if the £5 personal incidential expense could be claimed ontop of this also?
Anyone know?