Client is a contractor in the construction industry. Paid via CIS.
Did a couple of contracts in last tax year that involved staying away from home for approx 20 nights on each job.
He decided to tow his caravan to sites near each job and stay in the caravan to keep costs down (instead of say a Travellodge).
He has asked if he can claim a daily subsistence allowance. I have advised no. Employees could claim subsistence allowance but I don't believe self employed people can.
Appreciate some one confirmimng this is correct. If he had paid for meals and kept receipts I assume he could have claimed these.
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ITTOIA 2005, s 57A, which allows reasonable expenses on food and drink taken during the course of business travel, provided:
a) The travel expenses themselves are allowable (e.g. not in the course of travel from home to work), and
b) The trade is, by its nature, itinerant, or, the trip is outside the trader’s normal pattern of travel.
I'm too hot to research this properly ... but logic (that dangerous concept) tells me that if he is self-employed his business expenses can include anything that was incurred wholly and necessarily in order to carry out that business. This might well include the cost of basic accommodation (such as the Travellodge that he avoided using) ... but any kind of equivalent flat-rate allowance (whose purview is generally limited to employee expenses not businesses ones) is not available to his self-employment.
https://www.icas.com/landing/tax/working-away-from-home,-what-to-watch-f...
Recent tax cases to digest, from caravan dining table.