Originally posted by northernladuk
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No-one really GAS, only the paperwork matters, and a note to explain why the accommodation was needed if it's not immediately obvious when perusing the records.
Fact is you can claim whatever you like on expenses as long as you can argue it was necessary for your work. Some things may get pulled up by your accountant, in which case they'll simply transfer it to another part of the accounts with minimal fuss.
HMRC will only even bother checking if they do an investigation, as the normal accounts they receive don't go into enough detail for them to identify when a wrong expense has been claimed. If they investigate and find something wrong they'll make you pay it back. Hardly going to be bankrupting if it's just the odd night in a hotel that was wrongly expensed.
In over 12 years of contracting I've only ever had one expenses investigation and they found nothing wrong, despite me claiming for everything under the sun (rent, deposit, gas, leccy, water, council tax, TV licence ) for an apartment I was only using while working away from home. The bold bit is all they really bothered about to make sure I was really not living there full time.
So relax, if in doubt claim it and get your accountant to sort it out at the year end.
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