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Expenses while away on business.

Tony Lockhart

Tony Lockhart

Avoiding Stress, at Every Opportunity
Over the next three years I’ll be going away, a few days at a time, for my company. Predictably we would like our expenses increased as it’s quite difficult to feed and water ourselves on what they’re allowing us.

£30 evening meal, receipted (incl one alcoholic drink), £5 lunch/incidentals, also receipted, breakfast ‘if’ it’s provided at the hotel.
And there’s the sting: if breakfast isn’t provided, we have to buy something, receipted, and it comes out of the £30 for the evening meal.

I would like to know how this compares with what other companies provide. The hotel they are putting me in next Friday for three nights isn’t cheap to eat in, and Oxfordshire is far from bargain basement!
 
I think there are HMRC guidelines, and they are far from generous. Exceeding them risks being assessed for BIK, I think.

Probably something on the HMRC website about it - don’t have a link for you, sorry.
 
It's been while since I did that sort of thing but that seems about right. We used to have very strict rules that were applied liberally. Look after yourself but don't take the p*ss.
 
As mentioned above, check HMRC website. If in UK, max you will likely get is £30 per day, unless your company has its own rules, but that would mean your company would end up paying more to the taxman as extra "benefits".
 
That compares to the public sector allowances - only real difference is that since 2016(ish) you can't claim for any alcohol.

IME, you're hard pushed to find a hotel that doesn't offer B&B.
 
It used to be that HMRC EIM meal allowances are £30 per day spread across all meals, above that most employers pay the BIK
 
Seeker_UK said:
That compares to the public sector allowances - only real difference is that since 2016(ish) you can't claim for any alcohol.

IME, you're hard pushed to find a hotel that doesn't offer B&B.
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Yep, it’s based on the HMRC allowance, we get £11 for lunch, £15 for evening meal and £4 for tea breaks.
 
Thanks all.

Other people have also mentioned ‘not taking the piss’. That’d be nice!

A previous trip that I didn’t go on involved staying at a place that had no restaurant. The problem is that sometimes we get late notice of the trip, so the reasonable places are already booked up.

Oh well. Looks like we will have to suck it up, and if the prices increase, start refusing to go.
 
You’ve just got to suck it up I’m afraid. When I was doing it (mainly US and EMEA) I used to find that travelling on business always costs you money, it’s just the way it is.
 
Might have to fiddle the overtime :)

If I was on £60k+ per year I’d not worry too much, but aircraft techies ain’t on that. By a long way.
 
When I worked for the DoD (US Army) they paid us a per diem of $150 but as we were working on bases 90% of the time we used the on base hotel which was $30 per night and ate in the PX so were making around $100 profit.

No chance of that in the UK, HMRC really are a bunch of tossers.
 
4 years ago mine was 25 for any meal. My boss always kept the food under a tenner plus a pint, so I did too. Seemed fine. Pubs always gave the right result.
 
Don't eat in the hotel. That's daft! You've got legs so get out. You should eat well in most pubs and that includes in London. I work in the corporate event industry and I invoice for £30 per day out of pocket expenses on site with the client paying for room and breakfast. The only exception to this is where catering is provided and that can vary from a very cheap pie to a 9 course meal at the Savoy - more often the former - the latter only once. When catering is provided I get nothing. I can only remember once in the last 10 years when I ate in the hotel and that was where the restaurant had a Michelin star so I topped up my expenses and ate very well.
 
Last company I worked for in the UK gave us B&B only. When attending an overnighter at head office we got either full board ( they had a special deal with one particular hotel) or B&B plus buffet at the office.
There was also a passable canteen for lunches on site.
 
Our dinner limit if staying overnight is £35 UK $50 USA, lunch is £7.50 in the UK but $25 in the USA. Breakfast is £19 in hotel or £7.50 elsewhere.

We are also allowed £ 5 for incidentals in UK and £10 abroad.

We can also entertain customers in which case the limits are only what we deem appropriate.
 
HMRC guidelines are very tight. I get just 13p per mile for business. Thankfully company does not look too closely at mileage figures, I'm afraid you often have to dip into own pocket.
 
Ponty said:
You’ve just got to suck it up I’m afraid. When I was doing it (mainly US and EMEA) I used to find that travelling on business always costs you money, it’s just the way it is.
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I don’t think I lose anything on business travel but I do a lot so am quite detailed on my records. Back when I drove a lot in the UK some of my colleagues did pad the mileage to make sure they were not behind. Nothing too obvious just redressing the balance a little.
 
Tony Lockhart said:
£30 evening meal, receipted (incl one alcoholic drink), £5 lunch/incidentals, also receipted, breakfast ‘if’ it’s provided at the hotel.
And there’s the sting: if breakfast isn’t provided, we have to buy something, receipted, and it comes out of the £30 for the evening meal.

I would like to know how this compares with what other companies provide. The hotel they are putting me in next Friday for three nights isn’t cheap to eat in, and Oxfordshire is far from bargain basement!
Click to expand...
Seems pretty tight, I work for a large US tech multinational and it’s $75/day with a bit of flex for expensive locations (London etc)
 
Tony, about the same. I get a small daily allowance as well. Just to note, laundry expenses are not normally allowed, so if your work clothes get filthy then tough.
 
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