Opinions on using coffee shop as a casual workspace.

[password]

So anyway, OP, you said:

Emphasis added. You might have trouble with that 'wholly and exclusively' thing.

You are correct that if YourCo rented an office space and provided coffee for its employees it would all be tax free. You could argue that this is all you are doing, renting office space and providing coffee. There's a logic to it.

But it's not the usual thing, it is likely to raise eyebrows at least at HMRC, and if it is worth less than £200 / year (as per the above figures), I don't think I'd push the envelope on it. I certainly wouldn't do snacks, etc, if I were to try this I'd keep it to tea/coffee (which I think is specifically mentioned in HMRC guidance), and buy anything else personally.

Yea, that's all fair. I mean in one case you are paying for office space and getting inclusive coffee.. in the other, you are paying for coffee and getting inclusive office space.

I see your point on snacks etc.

Regarding commentary about the amounts being miniscule. I think it is a good practice to include even the simplest of business expenses. I say this because when I go shopping online for example and go click happy and add a bunch of items to my cart thinking.. Oh that's only £2 pounds and so forth. By the time I click checkout the overall cart value is quite high.

I would be willing to apply the same logic here..thanks for your input.

[LondonManc]

Rent a cheap office space, get a Nespresso machine contract. Surely it looks more like a business space then?

[Lance]

Rent a cheap office space, get a Nespresso machine contract. Surely it looks more like a business space then?

Wetherspoons. All day coffee/tea free refills.

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

Rent a cheap office space, get a Nespresso machine contract. Surely it looks more like a business space then?

Get a garden office, buy a Nespresso machine.

[Alchemy Accountancy]

£10 / day = £2,300 / year

paying this out of pocket would cost 2300 x 1.2 x 1.325 = £3,657

which makes a saving of £1,357 / year

You should also have used 1.19, not 1.2. And you should have asked OP if he is higher rate or not, if not, you should have used 1.075 instead of 1.325.

So the 2300 is wrong, the 1.2 is wrong, and the 1.325 might be wrong. Other than that your figures are fine.

Sorry to be pedantic here...but what you actually need to do is divide it out by 1 minus the rate of tax (expressed as a decimal) - I'm sure there will be a proper mathematical term for this..

So to get the dividend declaration required to get an after tax amount of £2,300 (and assuming a higher rate payer @ 32.5%) it is:
2,300 / 0.675 = 3,407.40

Then to get the amount of income required prior to corporation tax (19% is indeed the right rate), it is then:
3,407.40 / 0.81 = 4,206.67

So the actual saving (assuming a higher rate tax payer) would be £1,906.67

[pr1]

plus the VAT

[Old Greg]

Find a coffee shop that will give you a receipt for hot desk space for a tenner and throw in a tenner's worth of drinks and food.

[WTFH]

And if the coffee shop kicks you out after 1 hour when all you bought was a single coffee, while you're in the middle of an important conference call?
...or they refuse to serve you because you take up a table for 4 people for 6 hours when they are busy?

[northernladuk]

Wetherspoons. All day coffee/tea free refills.

That will impress the client......

[northernladuk]

And if the coffee shop kicks you out after 1 hour when all you bought was a single coffee, while you're in the middle of an important conference call?
...or they refuse to serve you because you take up a table for 4 people for 6 hours when they are busy?

Now we've had a good number of sensible answers to a fairly daft question is it time to move it to General?? Pretty please.