Can anyone pl. assist me as reading some HMRC stuff it's just not always clear! My friend is a newish self employed life coach. His work often entails round-trip travelling to the city/or locally to meet clients (not companies) in hotels/coffee shops to meet and fully discuss their concerns in lengthy discussions before advising them accordingly. He does not do interviews at home, but goes to near where the client(s) is (are) based. In the course of the necessarily long interviews (say 2-4 hours) he of course has to buy teas/coffees at the establishment's obviously premium costs. For the purposes of argument he is not away longer than say 6 hours or so.
Can he :
a) claim any tax deduction for his own consumption of teas/coffee and maybe any small food items like a piece of cake etc (nb. not his dinner) ?
b) claim anything for his expenditure for the client's consumption of the same.
I know this is irrelevant but he advises that his other friends who do vaguely similar types of work claim all the above which has made me uncertain, so how best is it to answer this point please.
I'll try to shed some light on this for ya. To my understanding you can claim for food expenses if you are on an overnight business trip and within reason.
I don't think a builder could claim for grabbing a coffee at the nearest shop to wherever he is working, which in essence could be classed as the same thing.
However, if these costs could be justified as necessary in the course of the business you may be able to claim them.
Your options:
As always if your not clear simply contact the revenue by telephone and seek clarification
Or
As told to me by an Inspector of taxes, you can claim it on a SA if you feel it is a necessary cost & explain this in the notes of your SA and if the HMRC feel it is not! Then you simply add it back by making the adjustments the self assessment return to reflect this.
Dear Noel, Hello mate and many many thanks. I thought much like you, and particularly liked your approach about claiming on the SA coupled with a clarifying note. BUT half an hour ago I have just turned up the following site document (see above) which you may find of some interest, giving perhaps grounds here for some scope. I think the life coach trade here is itinerant, and if the HMRC view has moved on from its former view of subsistence it may not be a forlorn hope to claim it. Best Regards Neil
