Night Out Allowance Receipts Do's and Dont's

dipper_dave · 29 April 2018 07:24

Covered a few times already I know but the corporate behemoth I work for has now got round to implementing the whole, must produce receipts shenanigans.

Now let’s not get into the whole night out money is not part of the wage debate, or do I don’t mind. I’m more interested in looking at legal-ish ways of producing receipts to comply with our beloved HMRC to maintain the tax free status of my night out cash.

Sure there are drivers like me on a special diet of healthy-ish foods that choose not to eat at truckstops or snap vans/Gregg’s/McDonald’s etc every day.
For us we either do our weekly shop on the weekend or batch cook some nice meals for the evening meals in the week.

So here’s what I came up with.

Do’s:

Do get a receipt for everything you buy during work hours, whether it’s an acceptable expense or not bung it in and see what happens. Ideally one item should be acceptable like a drink for example.
Do your weekly shop online during work time, haven’t checked this yet but it should be possible to save and print out the receipt later.
Do daily shops, bit of a pain in the arris but if the opportunity arises don’t miss the chance to buy something that is an allowable expense.
Do buy a little receipt book (careful here as this will appear in the Don’t section) and if you can’t get a receipt, ask the food/service provider to do one for you.
Do take photos of your food if receipts aren’t available, time and date stamp them HMRC allow this I believe.

Dont’s: (Or dodgy do’s as I prefer to call them).
Remember tax fraud is naughty, HMRC already know most tricks anyway but be creative if your going down this road).

Don’t mouch round bins looking for other people’s receipts.

Don’t hang around outside Gregg’s asking folk for receipts.

Don’t suddenly think hang on I could get away with the above without realising we are moving to a cashless society and a cash receipt is the holy grail of receipts in fact ignore this bit it’s illegal possibly even money laundering if some bloke is offering to sell you his cash receipts on a lorry park for say ‘50p’, wearing a blue coat and extremely good looking.

Don’t spend half an hour picking up every receipt you find keeping the cash ones and offer them for sale on the lorry park for say ‘50p’ then realise you can make a fortune doing this and hire some illegals to do the same on a commission basis.

Don’t create an order at McDonald’s get the receipt then cancel it.

Don’t buy a receipt book and make up your own fake receipts: i.e. “Dippers Diner A14- Full Breakfast +Tea & Felching session =£9.50”

Don’t ask your wife/partner friend to keep receipts from in the week and use them.

Don’t take photos of other people’s food or take photos of magazine food articles or download food images from tinterweb (seriously don’t use downloaded images, time and date stamped remember).

Just a few ideas I had sure there’s more…

uktramp · 29 April 2018 08:16

Good solid advice, I actually never thought of the online ordering. I used to do the shopping with the Mrs when I got home to buy fresh food ingredients for the following week, was told the dates on the receipts had to be whilst you are at work, by shopping online and paying whilst away and choosing a delivery date for when I return could be the answer. Wonder if this constitutes as a naughty do or will be construed legit. Will put it to the test and see if it is ok.

wheel_nut · 29 April 2018 08:32

Dipper_Dave:
Covered a few times already I know but the corporate behemoth I work for has now got round to implementing the whole, must produce receipts shenanigans.

Now let’s not get into the whole night out money is not part of the wage debate, or do I don’t mind. I’m more interested in looking at legal-ish ways of producing receipts to comply with our beloved HMRC to maintain the tax free status of my night out cash.

Sure there are drivers like me on a special diet of healthy-ish foods that choose not to eat at truckstops or snap vans/Gregg’s/McDonald’s etc every day.
For us we either do our weekly shop on the weekend or batch cook some nice meals for the evening meals in the week.

So here’s what I came up with.

Do’s:

Do get a receipt for everything you buy during work hours, whether it’s an acceptable expense or not bung it in and see what happens. Ideally one item should be acceptable like a drink for example.

Do your weekly shop online during work time, haven’t checked this yet but it should be possible to save and print out the receipt later.

Do daily shops, bit of a pain in the arris but if the opportunity arises don’t miss the chance to buy something that is an allowable expense.

Do buy a little receipt book (careful here as this will appear in the Don’t section) and if you can’t get a receipt, ask the food/service provider to do one for you.

Do take photos of your food if receipts aren’t available, time and date stamp them HMRC allow this I believe.

Dont’s: (Or dodgy do’s as I prefer to call them).
Remember tax fraud is naughty, HMRC already know most tricks anyway but be creative if your going down this road).

Don’t mouch round bins looking for other people’s receipts.

Don’t hang around outside Gregg’s asking folk for receipts.

Don’t suddenly think hang on I could get away with the above without realising we are moving to a cashless society and a cash receipt is the holy grail of receipts in fact ignore this bit it’s illegal possibly even money laundering if some bloke is offering to sell you his cash receipts on a lorry park for say ‘50p’, wearing a blue coat and extremely good looking.

Don’t spend half an hour picking up every receipt you find keeping the cash ones and offer them for sale on the lorry park for say ‘50p’ then realise you can make a fortune doing this and hire some illegals to do the same on a commission basis.

Don’t create an order at McDonald’s get the receipt then cancel it.

Don’t buy a receipt book and make up your own fake receipts: i.e. “Dippers Diner A14- Full Breakfast +Tea & Felching session =£9.50”

Don’t ask your wife/partner friend to keep receipts from in the week and use them.

Don’t take photos of other people’s food or take photos of magazine food articles or download food images from tinterweb (seriously don’t use downloaded images, time and date stamped remember).

Just a few ideas I had sure there’s more…

[emoji23][emoji14][emoji487]

franglais · 29 April 2018 08:41

Wheel Nut:

Dipper_Dave:
Covered a few times already I know but the corporate behemoth I work for has now got round to implementing the whole, must produce receipts shenanigans.

Now let’s not get into the whole night out money is not part of the wage debate, or do I don’t mind. I’m more interested in looking at legal-ish ways of producing receipts to comply with our beloved HMRC to maintain the tax free status of my night out cash.

Sure there are drivers like me on a special diet of healthy-ish foods that choose not to eat at truckstops or snap vans/Gregg’s/McDonald’s etc every day.
For us we either do our weekly shop on the weekend or batch cook some nice meals for the evening meals in the week.

So here’s what I came up with.

Do’s:

Do get a receipt for everything you buy during work hours, whether it’s an acceptable expense or not bung it in and see what happens. Ideally one item should be acceptable like a drink for example.

Do your weekly shop online during work time, haven’t checked this yet but it should be possible to save and print out the receipt later.

Do daily shops, bit of a pain in the arris but if the opportunity arises don’t miss the chance to buy something that is an allowable expense.

Do buy a little receipt book (careful here as this will appear in the Don’t section) and if you can’t get a receipt, ask the food/service provider to do one for you.

Do take photos of your food if receipts aren’t available, time and date stamp them HMRC allow this I believe.

Dont’s: (Or dodgy do’s as I prefer to call them).
Remember tax fraud is naughty, HMRC already know most tricks anyway but be creative if your going down this road).

Don’t mouch round bins looking for other people’s receipts.

Don’t hang around outside Gregg’s asking folk for receipts.

Don’t suddenly think hang on I could get away with the above without realising we are moving to a cashless society and a cash receipt is the holy grail of receipts in fact ignore this bit it’s illegal possibly even money laundering if some bloke is offering to sell you his cash receipts on a lorry park for say ‘50p’, wearing a blue coat and extremely good looking.

Don’t spend half an hour picking up every receipt you find keeping the cash ones and offer them for sale on the lorry park for say ‘50p’ then realise you can make a fortune doing this and hire some illegals to do the same on a commission basis.

Don’t create an order at McDonald’s get the receipt then cancel it.

Don’t buy a receipt book and make up your own fake receipts: i.e. “Dippers Diner A14- Full Breakfast +Tea & Felching session =£9.50”

Don’t ask your wife/partner friend to keep receipts from in the week and use them.

Don’t take photos of other people’s food or take photos of magazine food articles or download food images from tinterweb (seriously don’t use downloaded images, time and date stamped remember).

Just a few ideas I had sure there’s more…

[emoji23][emoji14][emoji487]

No WheelNut,
DD distinctly said “photos of food”, emojis of pizzas (or tarts!) isn`t acceptable to HMRC.

toby1234abc · 29 April 2018 08:46

No need for all that faffing with receipts, we have been told its acceptable to buy the food for the week away tramping in the cab with a fridge and microwave .
The receipt for the food for the truck must not be part of your weekly shop for home.
You can shop for ready meals on the weekend.

dipper_dave · 29 April 2018 10:20

toby1234abc:
No need for all that faffing with receipts, we have been told its acceptable to buy the food for the week away tramping in the cab with a fridge and microwave .
The receipt for the food for the truck must not be part of your weekly shop for home.
You can shop for ready meals on the weekend.

I’m hoping our place adopt this common sense approach, but it’s down to HMRC and their bespoke agreement.

For now I’m going with a limited weekly shop, a few daily shops, perhaps an odd meal out (posh gastro pub).

Hang on drinks are OK as well, bugger it I’ll just have more nights on the ■■■■ in the week.

nick2008 · 29 April 2018 11:58

So far so good.
If and when our lot go down that road the union will be involved and I’ll have a few shots of some of these

roymondo · 29 April 2018 13:54

UKtramp:
Good solid advice, I actually never thought of the online ordering. I used to do the shopping with the Mrs when I got home to buy fresh food ingredients for the following week, was told the dates on the receipts had to be whilst you are at work, by shopping online and paying whilst away and choosing a delivery date for when I return could be the answer. Wonder if this constitutes as a naughty do or will be construed legit. Will put it to the test and see if it is ok.

It’s been a while since I’ve used a supermarket’s online home delivery service (now the kids have flown the nest) but when I did, the date on the receipt was the delivery day. No surprise really as they (Tesco in our case) made it clear that the prices charged would be those in force on delivery day, so the order had to go through their checkout system on that day.

HMRC are quite clear in their advice to employers wishing to use the agreed scale rate of £34.90/£26.20 that in order to pay tax-free Night Out Money the expense must be incurred after starting the journey.

dipper_dave · 29 April 2018 14:15

Roymondo:

UKtramp:
Good solid advice, I actually never thought of the online ordering. I used to do the shopping with the Mrs when I got home to buy fresh food ingredients for the following week, was told the dates on the receipts had to be whilst you are at work, by shopping online and paying whilst away and choosing a delivery date for when I return could be the answer. Wonder if this constitutes as a naughty do or will be construed legit. Will put it to the test and see if it is ok.

It’s been a while since I’ve used a supermarket’s online home delivery service (now the kids have flown the nest) but when I did, the date on the receipt was the delivery day. No surprise really as they (Tesco in our case) made it clear that the prices charged would be those in force on delivery day, so the order had to go through their checkout system on that day.

HMRC are quite clear in their advice to employers wishing to use the agreed scale rate of £34.90/£26.20 that in order to pay tax-free Night Out Money the expense must be incurred after starting the journey.

Bit of a stumbling block this online shopping, there a few options though.

Use co-op click and collect and get the wife/partner/random stranger to pick it up before Friday (unless you night out on a Friday obviously).
Some bonus with the co-op system as it’s free and no minimum order.
Order your shopping Wednesday and have it delivered Thursday.

sidevalve · 29 April 2018 15:24

For all that drivers whine and grizzle about having trackers fitted to their vehicles, this is one area where it actually benefits you. If your vehicle is fitted with a tracking device, you don’t need to produce receipts to prove you’ve had a night out.

roymondo · 29 April 2018 15:43

The issue is of course that the point of producing a receipt is to show that you actually incurred additional expense because of the night out. Tesco etc receipts for routine grocery purchases (regardless of when/where the food was cooked and eaten) don’t do this. Pretty much everyone buys food to cook at home, and regardless of your reasons if you’re not eating out then you’re not incurring additional expense…

roymondo · 29 April 2018 15:45

Sidevalve:
For all that drivers whine and grizzle about having trackers fitted to their vehicles, this is one area where it actually benefits you. If your vehicle is fitted with a tracking device, you don’t need to produce receipts to prove you’ve had a night out.

You don’t simply need to prove you’ve had a night out - you need to show that you incurred additional expense as a result of said night out. That’s the bit that HMRC want to see…

uktramp · 29 April 2018 16:05

Roymondo:

UKtramp:
Good solid advice, I actually never thought of the online ordering. I used to do the shopping with the Mrs when I got home to buy fresh food ingredients for the following week, was told the dates on the receipts had to be whilst you are at work, by shopping online and paying whilst away and choosing a delivery date for when I return could be the answer. Wonder if this constitutes as a naughty do or will be construed legit. Will put it to the test and see if it is ok.

It’s been a while since I’ve used a supermarket’s online home delivery service (now the kids have flown the nest) but when I did, the date on the receipt was the delivery day. No surprise really as they (Tesco in our case) made it clear that the prices charged would be those in force on delivery day, so the order had to go through their checkout system on that day.

HMRC are quite clear in their advice to employers wishing to use the agreed scale rate of £34.90/£26.20 that in order to pay tax-free Night Out Money the expense must be incurred after starting the journey.

This is awkward as we combine the shopping day, usually a Saturday when we do our shopping, my Mrs makes my meals for when I am away for most nights, once a week I eat out at a carvery or pub so rarely do I ever collect receipts when away. Also it is difficult to obtain a receipt in a pub. Are HMRC trying to force me to eat junk food whilst away in order to obtain receipts. I thought the online ordering sounded a good work around. Difficult one in my case.

sidevalve · 29 April 2018 17:49

Roymondo:

Sidevalve:
For all that drivers whine and grizzle about having trackers fitted to their vehicles, this is one area where it actually benefits you. If your vehicle is fitted with a tracking device, you don’t need to produce receipts to prove you’ve had a night out.

You don’t simply need to prove you’ve had a night out - you need to show that you incurred additional expense as a result of said night out. That’s the bit that HMRC want to see…

I’ve not had anyone at my company raise this issue yet. When they do, that’s me done with nights out. Simple as that.

roymondo · 29 April 2018 18:25

UKtramp:

Roymondo:
HMRC are quite clear in their advice to employers wishing to use the agreed scale rate of £34.90/£26.20 that in order to pay tax-free Night Out Money the expense must be incurred after starting the journey.

This is awkward as we combine the shopping day, usually a Saturday when we do our shopping, my Mrs makes my meals for when I am away for most nights, once a week I eat out at a carvery or pub so rarely do I ever collect receipts when away. Also it is difficult to obtain a receipt in a pub. Are HMRC trying to force me to eat junk food whilst away in order to obtain receipts. I thought the online ordering sounded a good work around. Difficult one in my case.

If you are combining the shopping and the Mrs is preparing meals for you to take with you, where is the additional expense being incurred? And what is so difficult about obtaining a receipt in a pub? All it takes is the addition of “May I have a receipt, please?” when you hand over the money…

uktramp · 29 April 2018 19:18

Roymondo:
If you are combining the shopping and the Mrs is preparing meals for you to take with you, where is the additional expense being incurred? And what is so difficult about obtaining a receipt in a pub? All it takes is the addition of “May I have a receipt, please?” when you hand over the money…

The additional expense is from having to buy the additional food that I need to take with me, I still eat at home too. Been in many pubs where they don’t or rather cannot issue an official receipt. So even if I ask in the way you have suggested I ask, it can still be a problem. The larger chain type pubs is fairly easy to receive a receipt…

bobbya · 29 April 2018 19:35

Roymondo:

UKtramp:

Roymondo:
HMRC are quite clear in their advice to employers wishing to use the agreed scale rate of £34.90/£26.20 that in order to pay tax-free Night Out Money the expense must be incurred after starting the journey.

This is awkward as we combine the shopping day, usually a Saturday when we do our shopping, my Mrs makes my meals for when I am away for most nights, once a week I eat out at a carvery or pub so rarely do I ever collect receipts when away. Also it is difficult to obtain a receipt in a pub. Are HMRC trying to force me to eat junk food whilst away in order to obtain receipts. I thought the online ordering sounded a good work around. Difficult one in my case.

If you are combining the shopping and the Mrs is preparing meals for you to take with you, where is the additional expense being incurred? And what is so difficult about obtaining a receipt in a pub? All it takes is the addition of “May I have a receipt, please?” when you hand over the money…

My thoughts exactly.

uktramp · 29 April 2018 20:30

bobbya:

Roymondo:
If you are combining the shopping and the Mrs is preparing meals for you to take with you, where is the additional expense being incurred? And what is so difficult about obtaining a receipt in a pub? All it takes is the addition of “May I have a receipt, please?” when you hand over the money…

My thoughts exactly.

If you read the post correctly, you will see I said that I combine the shopping day not the shopping itself. I go shopping with the Mrs so do mine at the same time, what is there to think about!!!

roymondo · 30 April 2018 09:43

UKtramp:

bobbya:

Roymondo:
If you are combining the shopping and the Mrs is preparing meals for you to take with you, where is the additional expense being incurred? And what is so difficult about obtaining a receipt in a pub? All it takes is the addition of “May I have a receipt, please?” when you hand over the money…

My thoughts exactly.

If you read the post correctly, you will see I said that I combine the shopping day not the shopping itself. I go shopping with the Mrs so do mine at the same time, what is there to think about!!!

What significant additional expense are you incurring by eating home cooked/prepared food while on a night out?

Everyone eats, regardless of whether they are at home or having a night out. By your logic everyone in the land should be entitled to tax free Night Out Money…

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

uktramp · 30 April 2018 10:19

Roymondo:

UKtramp:

bobbya:

Roymondo:
If you are combining the shopping and the Mrs is preparing meals for you to take with you, where is the additional expense being incurred? And what is so difficult about obtaining a receipt in a pub? All it takes is the addition of “May I have a receipt, please?” when you hand over the money…

My thoughts exactly.

If you read the post correctly, you will see I said that I combine the shopping day not the shopping itself. I go shopping with the Mrs so do mine at the same time, what is there to think about!!!

What significant additional expense are you incurring by eating home cooked/prepared food while on a night out?

Everyone eats, regardless of whether they are at home or having a night out. By your logic everyone in the land should be entitled to tax free Night Out Money…

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

I buy the food to take with me it is irrelevant who prepares my meals, at home or otherwise. I still have to buy it in the first place. If I was to stay at home and eat at home then that is totally different as I wouldn’t be buying extra food to take away. Quite a simple concept really.

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