SELF EMPLOYED - CLAIMABLE EXPENSES

SELF EMPLOYED - CLAIMABLE EXPENSES

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Can anyone pl. assist me as reading some HMRC stuff it's just not always clear!  My friend is a newish self employed life coach.  His work often entails round-trip travelling to the city/or locally to meet clients (not companies) in hotels/coffee shops to meet and fully discuss their concerns in lengthy discussions before advising them accordingly.  He does not do interviews at home, but goes to near  where the client(s) is (are) based.  In the course of the necessarily long interviews (say 2-4 hours) he of course has to buy teas/coffees at the establishment's obviously premium costs.  For the purposes of argument he is not away longer than say 6 hours or so.

Can he :

a) claim any tax deduction for his own consumption of teas/coffee and maybe any small food items like a piece of cake etc (nb. not his dinner) ?

b) claim anything for his expenditure for the client's consumption of the same.

I know this is irrelevant but he advises that his other friends who do vaguely similar types of work claim all the above which has made me uncertain, so how best is it to answer this point please.

Many thanks.

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By Guardone
12th Feb 2012 03:28

travel expenses

The view I have, but never had to argue it, is that the extra costs of being away from home can be claimed. I am sure there was a case on the subject. Thus overnight hotel b+b would be claimed, and so teas / refreshments after say 3+ hours are reasonable. Technically a cup of tea for the client/prospect is not allowed as this would be entertaining. I would also not claim for alcoholic drinks. If the client had to travel, perhaps to a halfway meeting point, then each could claim their own refreshment. However the coach is spending money to get more work, so claim is reasonable. The prospect is spending money to help wih his personal tax affairs, so not reasonable. If the prospect receives quality accounting advice on how to keep decent records, for his business, then that seems reasonable.

It would be wise to annotate the receipts to indicate which client was visited. Since these pesky till receipts fade with time, ink should be used to write the date and value on them, plus other pertinent infomation as an investigation 4 years later will produce blank results.

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Replying to nick farrow:
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By spurs1952
12th Feb 2012 20:01

Self Employed Claimable Expenses

Dear Guardone,

Many thanks and much appreciation for your advice and points which I find really helpful in moving forward  on this with at least a bit more confidence now!

It would be interesting to know what happened with HMRC if anyone has actually had to argue a similar case to the one outlined.

Best Regards

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