This specifically refers to benefits in kind. However, I bought one of my tenants flowers as her mother died. I phoned HMRC to check this was a valid expense and they said no, I could not put these through the books.
There view was I purchased these as I am a good person, not because the business required me to?
The blog post about trivial benefits is about an employer-employee relationship whereas you're talking about a landlord-tenant (or business-customer) relationship, which operates under different rules. In theory, if you felt that the flowers were a business expense then you could put the cost through your books. However, it would be classified as a business gift and you wouldn't get tax relief on it.
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Pearce & Co - Chartered Accountant and Chartered Tax Adviser
You'll easily spot where I am going with this, but for the benefit of the tax man, if the flowers were a gift to my tenant for cutting the grass when it was not her responsibilty, would this be eligable for tax relief?
If she cuts the grass out of the kindness of her heart, and you give her flowers as a thank you, I imagine that HM Revenue & Customs would point to the following wording in the guidance that I linked to earlier:
Even if the recipient of the gift has provided a service to the trader, you should give no deduction unless it can be shown that the trader was under some contractual obligation to offer the gift.
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Pearce & Co - Chartered Accountant and Chartered Tax Adviser
