childminder tax expenses - help gratefully received

[sydenhamhiller]

Hi - as you may guess, I am a new-ish childminder, and this is the first year I have to submit a tax return.

HMRC states: "Reasonable estimates for the costs of food and drink provided for the children being cared for are acceptable and receipts will not be required."

I have two mindees who eat food I prepare: what is a reasonable cost for breakfast/ lunch? I mean, I could work out what 2 weetabix a day costs me, but sometimes it's toast and fruit, or porridge, or ready break...

Would be grateful for reasonable estimates: a CM friend estimates £2.50 for lunch, does that seem steep?

I charge £1.70 for breakfast, £2.30 for lunch and £2.45 for dinner, snacks are 75 pence each per day.

I offset (as I am not actually chargingthe parents iykwim) £2 for lunch as that is what school dinners cost. £1for breakfast and 70p for snacks.

I charge 50p per meal but I do have 6 children each day so buy in bulk.

For tax purposes I calculate £2.50 per session. A session being either am or pm. So if I have a Child for a morning only it is £2.50 per day and if I have a child all day it is £5.00. For after school mindees that have tea I have calculated it as £2.00 which is for a small snack after school and tea (all drinks too, of course).

squiby's £7.20 a day sounds a bit steep (if we spent that much our grocery bill would be £300 a week!)

50p a meal sounds a bit light though.

I am not a HMRC inspector, but if I was I would think that Dobby and Positive Outlook have it about right.

Mranchovy, 50p is super cheap and if I work it out on a monthly basis then I spend about £10 a month on my money to make up the deficit. I'm putting up the food prices to 55p per meal to cover it next month.

But we make everything literally from scratch and grow lots of fruit and veg. Most of the time I even managae to buy 9 packs of wet wipes with the food money too

So if you spend 55p a meal, that is what you claim as an expense, it doesn't matter that you only charge 50p.

yup that's what I've done, thanks again for being so helpful.