IMPORTANT INFORMATION

PLEASE READ THIS - IT’S ABOUT EXTRA MONEY

Don’t throw money away! Claiming your legitimate expenses can make a real difference to your finances - saving you the equivalent of hours of work.

INCREASED EXPENSES

At our request, HMRC recently reviewed our Expenses Dispensation, and the result is good for you as some of the amounts have increased. Here we show the expenses and amounts you can now claim for when operating through Gabem as an employee.

Mileage – no change:
Continue as currently: write the destination, reason for journey, dates of travel and car details on our expenses form. You must also provide VAT receipts for the fuel used. All petrol stations provide VAT receipts if you ask for them. These receipts should be sufficient to cover the number of miles you claim (as a guide, you’ll need receipts for about £13 for every 100 miles claimed). The receipt should be dated not more than a month before the date travelled.

Travel - no change:
Travel costs by road, rail, air and sea can be claimed if supported by receipts.

Minor business travel expenditure – a change:
Travel such as parking, road and bridge tolls and tube fares for which receipts are not available may be reimbursed providing that there is alternative supporting documentation (like a copy of work location information) to confirm that the expenses were necessarily incurred.

Subsistence - no change:
Where you are not required to stay away from home overnight, it is allowable to reimburse reasonable and necessary costs of a meal/snack and beverages incurred in connection with a journey undertaken for business purposes. The expenditure must be verified by receipts or alternative documentary evidence such as a note from you indicating the nature and place of small costs such as a cup of coffee. The amounts are:

• £7.50 where you are away from home for more than 5 hours but less or equal to 10 hours.
• £15.00 where you are away from home for 10 hours or more.

Accommodation - change to the amount:
Reimbursement of the reasonable and necessary cost of bed and breakfast hotel accommodation is allowable if you are required to stay away from home overnight in connection with a journey undertaken for business purposes. The expenditure must be verified by receipts and the amount reimbursed must not exceed £100.00 per night. We must have a receipt that includes the hotel/B&B’s name, address and telephone number (preferably a VAT-registered business with the receipt supplied on headed paper). Also when staying away, it is allowable to reimburse the reasonable and necessary costs of meals, snacks and beverages in connection with the journey. Again the expenditure must be verified by receipts and should now not exceed more than £25.00 in respect of any 24 hour period in which the overnight stay has occurred.

The above replaces the £5 per night daily allowance for personal incidental expenses relating to staying away from home. However, this is better for you as you can claim more, but we need you to submit receipts.

Tools/Clothing - no change:
You may claim for industrial tools that are solely for your use at work and clothing that relates to safety wear (such as fluorescent jackets and steel toe-cap boots). VAT receipts must be included for these claims. You may also claim for the cost of laundering protective clothing for which receipts will need to be provided.

Telephone (fixed line or mobile) - no change:
You can only claim for business calls, not private calls or rental. Highlight each business call on your itemized bill and include the original bill (NOT a photocopy) when you send us your expense claim. If you use a pay-as-you-go mobile phone and pay top-ups, you must still provide an itemised bill if you wish to claim for business calls.

Professional associations - no change:
If you belong to a professional body, you may find that fees and subscriptions are allowable expenses. Check if yours is allowable on HMRC’s website: www.hmrc.gov.uk/list3/list3/htm

Other Expenses:
If there are other expenses which you think you may be entitled to, not mentioned here, please talk to us.

We have enclosed the updated version of our Expense form, but don’t worry if you have already submitted forms — we will process them.

I hope this is useful information, but if you have further questions or require further clarification please call us on 01798 861100, email to enquiries@gabem.com, or send a text to 07797 880034 letting us know a time that will be convenient to call you. Kind regards,

Trudy Gordon

Managing Director

PS: Please remember that HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) states that expenses must be incurred wholly, exclusively and necessarily in the performance of your duties. We are required by HMRC to validate (as far as possible) that only legitimate expenses are processed, so please ONLY send us claims for legitimate expenses.