Can anyone tell me if there is a set amount for meals that sole traders can claim for while working away from home. I believe it is £5 per day or £10 per day if working extremely long hours. I have a client who is based in Manchester but travels to London or Birmingham Mon - Fri.
Can someone please advise.
Many Thanks.
Replies (6)
Please login or register to join the discussion.
Subsistence if qualifying would be based on receipts. The £5 and £10 you quote sounds like the benchmark scale rates as provided by a dispensation for employees.
Search the Any Answers. There are a lot of threads already on this subject.
Hi Chloe
The £5 and £10 details are here:
https://www.gov.uk/expenses-benefits-incidental-overnight-expenses/what-...
Hope this helps :)
Self employment - no relief for subsistence?
I had it in back of my mind that self employment meant you can't claim for subsistence since you eat to keep you alive rather than wholly and exclusively for business. Happy to be corrected with direction to where it is stated.
Meal expenses claim for self-employed
No simple answer. A lot of self employed people think that claiming costs of lunch, coffee, etc. is OK, if they have a day long business trip or working on site, but that isn’t the case (although the rules are different if you are an employee).
My understanding is that, as a self-employed person, you can claim “reasonable” costs of food and drink (actual receipted costs, and then generally only dinner and breakfast, lunch still would not be tax deductible) when you’re travelling on business, if:
Your business is by nature itinerant (for example, you’re a commercial traveller, taxi driver), or
You’re making an “occasional business journey outside the normal pattern”, or
You stay overnight on a business trip and claim the cost of accommodation as well as meals.
Guidance can be found at:
www.hmrc.gov.uk/incometax/relief-self-emp.htm
www.hmrc.gov.uk/factsheets/expenses-allowances.pdf
Another view (example of comments of the internet-nothing to do with me!)
www.contractoruk.com/expenses/meal_allowances.html