Meals - do you claim them?

[mudskipper]

Following on from the in this thread - do you claim for lunch when on contract?

I do - my view is that if I am in my permanent workplace (home office) I eat food I've made myself. If on client's site, I need to buy lunch, so it's claimable.

[Mr.Whippy]

No, never... unless I'm staying away in a hotel for the odd night or two then I would for the evening meal only.

[malvolio]

No, never... unless I'm staying away in a hotel for the odd night or two then I would for the evening meal only.

No never. Breakfast and evening meal if I'm staying away. Nothing else.

[MarillionFan]

Yes. Working with another guy who never does. He reckons he doesn't want to alert HMRC???

He also doesn't do mileage / travel and he's LTD????????

To be fair, I claim for everything. Starbucks, travel, stationary. I even try and get a receipt from the vending machine.

[SueEllen]

Depends.

Outside the UK I claim them due to how expenses work.

Inside the UK I've never claimed lunch I have claimed:
1. Coffee and drinking water as I worked at a client site that had lots of building work going on where they kept turning off the drinking water until it was pointed out that this breached H&S.
2. Evening meals due to working away from home and staying in hotels.
3. Evening meals on the odd occasion I've had to work late.

[d000hg]

my view is that if I am in my permanent workplace (home office) I eat food I've made myself. If on client's site, I need to buy lunch, so it's claimable.

Regardless if your client's site is 5 or 500 miles away?

[escapeUK]

No, its such a small cost compared to my huge day rate that it would be rather pathetic to even bother.

[MarillionFan]

No, its such a small cost compared to my huge day rate that it would be rather pathetic to even bother.

Every penny counts.

I presently have a round trip of 6 miles to site. I charge £2.40 per day for that as well as an average if £5 per day subsistence. Couple that with a home office where I work, sometimes just in the morning before going to work (£75 per month). My mobile phone £50 pet month. Stationary, printer paper, ink, any software and computer equipment as well as travel for interviews or conferences I may attend and my broadband, plus any business calls I make on my home phone then all of a sudden you're looking at 5k per year(ish) in expenses of which I can claim VAT and which reduce my corporation tax and make it
worth having an accountant.

Do that over the last 14 years and
I'll let you do the maths.

Every penny indeed.

[d000hg]

Hmm.

£75pcm on home office is breaking the rules unless you actually work from home a substantial amount, rather than having a nominal office for doing your tax/accountancy/invoicing - the whole bills * %floorspace * %time-usage thing.

Also, aren't you technically breaking the terms of your phone provider using it for business? I know of someone who was forcibly upgraded to a business line when BT found out. It's a technicality but if you're playing by what'[s technically allowed shouldn't you be equally nit-picking on these things?

£50pcm on a mobile is also expensive if you have it as a business phone only as well as a personal one?

[MarillionFan]

Hmm.
£75pcm on home office is breaking the rules unless you actually work from home a substantial amount, rather than having a nominal office for doing your tax/accountancy/invoicing - the whole bills * %floorspace * %time-usage thing.
Also, aren't you technically breaking the terms of your phone provider using it for business? I know of someone who was forcibly upgraded to a business line when BT found out. It's a technicality but if you're playing by what'[s technically allowed shouldn't you be equally nit-picking on these things?
£50pcm on a mobile is also expensive if you have it as a business phone only as well as a personal one?

I invoiced for 8 days last week based on hours. I was in the office every day for meetings but 80% i worked at home. My mobile is for work usage and as a smart phone I need access to CUK constantly. In addition if I have to make a call abroad from a landline i claim it back. If they're legit expenses then you should claim them all.