£30 - surely no longer enough for work expenses and Xmas party!

[Thursday5pmisginoclock]

For those in corporate roles where you can claim expenses…what are you company policy amounts for an evening meal when working away? Our £30 allowance feels so mean, and it’s the same amount for Christmas party! I mean what do you get for that nowadays??? Especially if we were to meet in London?

also why is the personal car payment still £0.45ppm - I am pretty sure it was that 10 maybe even 15/20 years ago!

inflation has not caught up surely…?

Is this commonplace?

Appleofmyeye2023
you are imagining and getting jealous of a utopia that simply doesn’t exist

Nope not jealous at all, but your right re petrol monies, its come about as last company i worked for if you travelled over so many miles they did pay you an allowance.
Ive never had a 30 minute lunch break in any previous company ive worked at, i thought it was unusual.

I don't think £30 is bad - probably because we get £25. But I worked in the public sector for a long time so probably have low expectations
What does wind me up though is the amount I end up spending on tea and coffee when away from home. That isn't claimable and really adds up.

I get nothing so I'll happily take £30!

Can I just thank those who said it's possible do claim the difference between employer mileage and HMRC rate of 45ppm?

That's worth around £120 a month to me. How did I not know this???

Do I just add to my tax return?

No money towards any Christmas party, and to be honest given that some people don't drink, others are not comfortable in social settings and may decline, I'm not fussed.

As for the HMRC allowance of 45p a mile, I think it should only apply to smaller petrol and electric vehicles.

Talk about entitled! We get a big fat £0

You can’t. Only the tax on the difference. So if you get 25p a mile from your employer you can claim 4p as a lower rate tax payer or 8p as a higher rate one per mile on your tax return.

That's a shame - but still worth claiming as I do high mileage.

So what would the rate be to a HR taxpayer for around 16,000 miles at 30ppm?

I'm in the wrong job. Ive just spent around £30 buying whiteboard pens for my class.

£30 is plenty. Main course and drink. If you want wine surely you pay for that yourself. And if there's no money for a tip I am afraid I wouldn't leave one.

Even in an expensive hotel where prices are inflated you'd still be hard pushed to pay more than £30 for a main course and soft drink.

I am also not sure that getting some sort of nutritious meal is that expensive - it's probably cheaper to buy a supermarket salad if you want something healthy. Or a jacket potato. Restaurant meals are rarely healthy.

I agree that £5 for breakfast is really stingy - a coffee on its own costs about £3 upwards.

The bigger issue for me with company expenses was always claiming them back and the time you had to wait. I rarely incur them now so it's not an issue.

A Tesco meal deal is £3.90 (less if you have a club card) Co Op is £4 for non members. My daughter who worked in London often used to get them. I wouldn’t get one as I don’t like butter or mayo on bread so I’d pick up a pack of bread rolls, an individual portion of ham and some fruit instead.

45p (first 10000 miles) - 30p = 15p
x 10000 miles = £1500
x 40% = *£600

25p - 30p = -5p
x 6000 miles = -£300
x 40% = -£120

£600 - £120 = £480 off your tax bill.

Presumably if the Christmas party is £30 per head, then that is the budget across every eligible person. If people don't go, then their per head budget still stands. So say you have a team of 50 people (£1,500), and only 30 actually go, the budget suddenly becomes £50 per head (£1,500 / 30).

I think there is a corporation tax rule on that which means no.

"I think there is a corporation tax rule on that which means no."

It's how our annual away day works, so assumed it was the same for the Christmas party (which I have never organised thank goodness).

Erm...nothing!! NHS!!!

Public sector here.. Xmas do is paid for by staff..

Haha! As a teacher we get nothing at all, then we pay our own Xmas lunch and any treats. We get there ourselves and pay for it.

These posts make me laugh, such a different life.

I was just thinking the same 🤣

There’s not a lot of job security in the public sector at the moment- schools have fresh rounds of redundancies every year.

Public sector here - we've always paid for ours so be grateful lol.

During this term, 21 staff ( 8 teachers 2 admin, 11 TA’s) in my local average sized primary school which was heading for a £750,000 deficit.

8 classes removed. Classes all now in excess of 35, two with 41 pupils. Class changes mid year in line with redundancy notices.

There’s not a lot of job security in the public sector at the moment- schools have fresh rounds of redundancies every year.

So do universities 😞

The era of job security is long gone

A Tesco meal deal?? If I'm away from the comforts of my own home for work purposes then I'll be damned if I'll be eating a Tesco meal deal. Our London allowance is £45, breakfast can be claimed separately if not included in hotel rate. Lunches aren't included though. Can have up to 2 alcoholic drinks as part of that.

Well what a relief!
If lunches aren’t included then you don’t have to endure a lowly Tesco meal deal.