meal allowances for a ltd company

**northernladuk** · 22 May 2011, 16:58

Originally posted by Shona View Post

I haven't been keeping receipts for my lunch and breakfast for the last year as I was expecting to be able to claim £10 a day for my breakfast and lunch. (I work 12 hour days including travel time).

Now when I come to do my tax returns, I was googling to check my figures and it seems like you can only claim for subsistence if you have receipts and it has to be the actual cost.

Has something changed recently? Am I now unable to claim any allowances for my meals because I haven't kept receipts?

I am a contractor with a limited company. My place of work is temporary, I have a few sources of income into my limited company and two consultancy jobs on the go (in case those things make a difference).

I was of the understanding you can only claim £5 a day. You can only do £10 if you are out of the country. You can claim anything you want without a reciept, the problems comes when you get investigated. Many of the guys at our place don't keep the reciepts either which is fair enough until they need to produce them. It would make it much easier if you are being investigated to have them but I don't think the are essential for the £5 a day.

**Wanderer** · 22 May 2011, 17:05

Originally posted by Shona View Post

Has something changed recently? Am I now unable to claim any allowances for my meals because I haven't kept receipts?

Welcome to the forum.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but my understanding is no receipts = no claim. If you get investigated, you will have to produce receipts or pay the tax + a penalty.

**SueEllen** · 22 May 2011, 23:51

If you don't have the receipts how are you going to prove to HMRC that you didn't make the meal costs up?

If you can find away then fine claim if you can't then don't claim.

**LisaContractorUmbrella** · 23 May 2011, 07:07

Agreed. You can only claim for costs that you have incurred and, more importantly, can prove that you have incurred. If you have worked through an umbrella company you may be thinking of scale rates which companies can agree with HMR&C if they have many employees, all or most of whom will be claiming for subsistence. However, even in this instance, it is necessary to prove to HMR&C that the costs are being genuinely incurred and that there are proper checks in place to ensure that claims are not being made without costs being incurred.

**Craig@Clarity** · 23 May 2011, 08:03

I agree with Lisa. The scale rate is to cut down on admin from the employer's point of view which means they don't need to see every single expense receipt but if investigated, those receipts play an important role in supporting the employee's expense claim. Assuming you're both the employer and employee, you'll just have to collect every receipt you can.

**GillsMan** · 23 May 2011, 08:31

And also you should hold onto the receipts for 6 years.

**manclarky** · 23 May 2011, 09:33

Originally posted by Craig@InTouch View Post

Assuming you're both the employer and employee, you'll just have to collect every receipt you can.

The client site I'm on uses a cashless system where you load up a card with cash that can only be used on the premises.
I load up my card and get a receipt for that, assuming that would be enough (I can't be spending the cash on anything else other than food in the canteen), but after reading above, should I be getting a receipt for every meal?

**Craig@Clarity** · 23 May 2011, 09:41

Originally posted by manclarky View Post

The client site I'm on uses a cashless system where you load up a card with cash that can only be used on the premises.
I load up my card and get a receipt for that, assuming that would be enough (I can't be spending the cash on anything else other than food in the canteen), but after reading above, should I be getting a receipt for every meal?

You're fine to claim the top-up in your case and you're getting a receipt for it as well

**Pondlife** · 23 May 2011, 10:33

When did lunch become an allowable expense?

I thought it was a case of "you would eat it anyway so it's not an additional cost"

Happy to be wrong on this

meal allowances for a ltd company