As long as your travel qualifies as business travel, see here, then you can claim a reasonable level of subsistence costs (food and drink) for you in association to the locations you are travelling to (not for other people - also see entertaining).
If you work from home you cannot claim any subsistence costs in your local area - it can only be claimed when you are on allowable business travel.
There is no specific level that can be claimed but we advise not to go over the top and keep costs to a sensible level.
A high level of subsistence claimed is likely to wave a red flag to HMRC.
You can only claim subsistence in respect of actual costs incurred so make sure you keep your receipts / backup to prove you have incurred costs.
There is an alternative to claiming the actual costs and that is to use HMRC's set rates.
In the past you would have to apply to HMRC for a 'dispensation' to be allowed to use these but from 6th April 2016 this is no longer the case and no dispensation is required.
The employee has to have actually incurred subsistence costs still so make sure you keep receipts as proof of expenditure.
The fixed subsistence scale rates to use from 6th April 2016 are detailed below - please note that there is a maximum total claimable per day of £25.
- 5 hours or more qualifying travel = £5
- 10 hours or more qualifying travel = £10
- 15 hours or more = £25
- If ‘1’ or ‘2’ are claimed then an additional £10 may be paid if the journey lasts beyond 8pm
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