Work expenses meal rates

stickyfiddle

I'm in the middle east where cheap food is almost impossible, but we get $45 per day, and we're allowed to book hotel stays which include breakfast, so that's not too bad. Alcohol is permitted as long as there's food on the bill, though half the time Im' in a dry country so it's moot.

fretmeister

Before I worked for myself - nothing.

The view in the law is that you would eat anyway, and that comes out of your salary.

Emp_Fab

If they book us in a place that has breakfast, £25 - which is supposed to cover lunch and an evening meal.  If they book us room only, it's £30.  We get this regardless of what we spend and therefore don't need to produce receipts.

If I choose my evening meal to be two bottles of gin, that's my prerogative.

Axe_meister

fretmeister said:

Before I worked for myself - nothing.

The view in the law is that you would eat anyway, and that comes out of your salary.

HMRC guidelines are £20 a night. Now you eat anyway but an evening meal at home will likely not cost more than £10.

Jalapeno

Corporate approved hotels usually have internet/wifi & breakfast included in the rate, and £25 for dinner - booze if you can squeeze it in.  £25 is less than a burger&chips plus a couple of pints in most of the bigger chain hotels - Marriott, Crowne Plaza etc.

Overseas it's different - you get a daily allowance of c.£50 - With Scandanavian hotels - when not included in the room rate (normal), breakfast buffet can be up to c.£35 - so for a day it's less than you think ......

MattBanshee

For overnight stays without any company-supplied dinner event (as is at most conferences), £15 per night which cannot include any alcohol; I believe this is probably due to company vehicles being in use so they don't want to be in any way responsible for drink driving. Lunch is a seperate allowance and only for day-long events without catering, and is a fiver.

Emp_Fab

Jalapeno said:

Corporate approved hotels usually have internet/wifi & breakfast included in the rate, and £25 for dinner - booze if you can squeeze it in.  £25 is less than a burger&chips plus a couple of pints in most of the bigger chain hotels - Marriott, Crowne Plaza etc.

Overseas it's different - you get a daily allowance of c.£50 - With Scandanavian hotels - when not included in the room rate (normal), breakfast buffet can be up to c.£35 - so for a day it's less than you think ......

THIRTY FIVE QUID FOR F*CKING BREAKFAST ??!!!!!!!!

Antique_Guitars

No set limit as such but needs to be reasonable, would probably get away with about £30 but I've been out with managers where it has probably been more like £50 per person.

octatonic

Self employed so whatever I want as I'm paying the bill.

Mrs Oct is a VP for a healthcare company and can spend as much 'as needed'- we once went to Pollen St Social on expenses (about £500 including wine) as they made her travel for 6 weeks straight and it was a thank you for 'our understanding'.
She's been to the Fat Duck on expenses in a previous job as well, lucky thing.

RocknRollDave

Our (AV installation) engineers will stay away from home failry regularly. Can't remember if there is an actual cap on the spending, but I do know that, being a small company, the guys are quite reasonable with their choices and usually make benefit of a meal deal included in the hotel costs or a Wetherspoon pub, plus a couple of drinks, alcohol included, are not frowned upon as they never take liberties with it.
I have only stopped away once in many years, and I was put up in a Premier Inn with breakfast and evening meal included, I think it was £25 extra on the hotel cost.

Wonder if it is different in a larger company where there is more potential for the system to be abused and lots of money wasted.

4114Effects

£8.50 is two and a half Tesco meal deals. I see no problem. If you're not full after that then there's something wrong. It'll also buy you a Weatherspoons or a big breakfast fry up. Or as much pizza as you can eat at the Pizza Hut buffet. 

Seriously though, you just live in the wrong part of the country. For £8.50 in Yorkshire you can dine like a king, with all the salted pork and mead you can stomach. 

CHRISB50

RocknRollDave said:

Our (AV installation) engineers will stay away from home failry regularly. Can't remember if there is an actual cap on the spending, but I do know that, being a small company, the guys are quite reasonable with their choices and usually make benefit of a meal deal included in the hotel costs or a Wetherspoon pub, plus a couple of drinks, alcohol included, are not frowned upon as they never take liberties with it.
I have only stopped away once in many years, and I was put up in a Premier Inn with breakfast and evening meal included, I think it was £25 extra on the hotel cost.

Wonder if it is different in a larger company where there is more potential for the system to be abused and lots of money wasted.

It definitely happens at my company. 

The expats (I work for a foreign company) pretty much expense their whole lives. Nothing is really rejected. 

If I tried it, I'd get laughed at. 

Random stuff for family. Clothing. Going out on the piss. Expensive rounds of golf. As long as you're mates with the FD you're sorted. 

Sporky

fretmeister said:

Before I worked for myself - nothing.

The view in the law is that you would eat anyway, and that comes out of your salary.

The problem with that is that when I'm out on the company's behalf I have limited time and choice, so in general food is more expensive than if I was at home or in the office.

I only claim lunch at trade shows (where it's much more expensive than a sammich in London), and I only claim dinner if I'm staying away or I've been out particularly late on company business (I think officially it's if you're still working at 6pm).

At my last job I could claim up to £25 for lunch and £75 for dinner, and the only restrictions were no spirits and no "fine wines". Oh, and the finance director sitting us down and saying "If you have a beer with dinner this is fine. If you have ten beers with dinner this is not so fine". Sadly he had a typical Dutch lack of sense of humour and was unamused when I asked if nine beers was OK.

hotpot

Expenses in transport were pitiful when I worked away, you got £15 for overnight accommodation & that was to find digs & meals HRMC taxed that meagre amount too. the cheapest Premier inn back then was around £22 for overnight accommodation.

CloudNine

Breakfast fairly flexible on amounts, as usually driven by what hotel you are in. Then £6 for lunch, £30 for evening meal, can include alcohol, and a further £5 sundry expense type thing. Think this is all fairly typical from talking to mates.

Axe_meister

Previous company we were allowed £40 a head, but you could pay for everybody in the party.
If you stagard the expense claim everybody would pay for the whole party.
So one person would pay for food the others for wine

bluechargeboy

I just looked at ours (aerospace engineering); it says (for UK travel):

Breakfast £15
Lunch £10
Evening meal £30

I do not recall ever giving it a moment's thought to this level of detail when travelling TBH.

Most of my business travel is overseas, and I make sure I find a customer to have meals with. Entertaining is given much more leniency than keeping one's own employees alive!

fretmeister

Axe_meister said:

fretmeister said:

Before I worked for myself - nothing.

The view in the law is that you would eat anyway, and that comes out of your salary.

HMRC guidelines are £20 a night. Now you eat anyway but an evening meal at home will likely not cost more than £10.

Not talking about what the HMRC says- I'm talking about being in practice 

sgosden

had £10 a day whilst on apprenticeship (2009-2015), so we made do on a combined feast of cold food from asda! couldn't afford much at restaurant, or even in the hotels we inhabited. Being away for 6 weeks at a time the limit selection gets very dull very quickly. we complained a lot that it wasn't enough even then!

Now get £25 allowance at whatever hotel I'm in .

joneve

Whatever really, as long as I don't take the piss. But I'll occasionally "entertain" and buy dinner for a mate if I'm meeting them after work in London or whatever. 

They pay for all meals whilst I'm out - I left the house at 6am yesterday, and bought a McD's breakfast, coffee and then lunch and some chocolate when I filled the car up - they'll happily re-imburse me for all of the above. Can't really complain.