Subsistence and Meal Allowance Expenses UK: HMRC Rates, Rules, and What You Can Claim

Subsistence is one of the most commonly claimed business expenses in the UK, and one of the most commonly claimed incorrectly. The rules seem straightforward until you dig into the detail: what counts as a temporary workplace, how long you can claim for one location, whether directors and sole traders follow the same rules as employees, and what happens when HMRC's benchmark rates do not cover the cost of a meal in central London.

This guide covers the full picture. Every rate, every rule, every edge case that catches business owners out.

What Counts as Subsistence: The HMRC Definition

Subsistence means the cost of food and non-alcoholic drinks that you incur because you are travelling for business. It does not mean your normal lunch. The distinction matters because it determines whether the expense is tax-deductible for the business and tax-free for the individual.

HMRC defines subsistence as necessary food and drink costs incurred during business travel to a temporary workplace. The key word is "necessary." You would not have bought that meal if you had been working at your normal location with access to your own kitchen or regular lunch spot.

The "Wholly and Exclusively" Test

Every business expense must pass the "wholly and exclusively" test set out in the Income Tax (Trading and Other Income) Act 2005 (for sole traders) and the Corporation Tax Act 2009 (for limited companies). The expense must be incurred wholly and exclusively for the purposes of the trade or business.

For subsistence, this means:

• The meal must arise directly from business travel
• You must be away from your normal workplace
• The cost must be reasonable and proportionate
• The meal must not have a significant personal element

HMRC's Business Income Manual at BIM37600 states clearly that "the cost of meals is a normal living expense" and is therefore not deductible as a general rule. The exception is when business travel creates an additional cost that the person would not otherwise have incurred.

The "Duality of Purpose" Problem

This is where most subsistence claims fall down. HMRC applies the "duality of purpose" doctrine from the case of Mallalieu v Drummond (1983). If an expense has both a business purpose and a personal purpose, it fails the "wholly and exclusively" test.

Everyone needs to eat. When you buy lunch during a business trip, there is an undeniable personal element: you were hungry. HMRC could argue that the meal served a personal purpose (nutrition) as well as a business purpose (sustaining you during travel).

In practice, HMRC accepts subsistence claims during genuine business travel because the law specifically provides for travel expenses, and the courts have established that the additional cost of eating away from home (rather than the basic need to eat) is the deductible element. But this acceptance depends on two conditions:

1. You were genuinely travelling to a temporary workplace
2. The cost was additional to what you would normally spend on food

This is why claiming your daily sandwich at the office never qualifies. You would have eaten that sandwich regardless of where you worked.

HMRC Benchmark Subsistence Rates for UK Business Travel

HMRC publishes benchmark scale rates that employers can use to reimburse employees for subsistence without requiring receipts. These rates are set out in the Employment Income Manual at EIM05231.

Current HMRC Benchmark Rates (2025/26 Tax Year)

These rates are the amounts HMRC will accept without question when an employer reimburses an employee. No receipts are required, no P11D reporting is needed, and there is no tax or National Insurance charge, provided the conditions are met.

Important: These rates have not increased since 2009. They do not reflect current food prices in many parts of the UK. A £5 breakfast allowance or a £10 allowance for two meals over a 10-hour working day is, frankly, tight. This is why understanding the rules around claiming actual costs matters.

Paying Above the Benchmark Rates

You are not limited to the benchmark rates. If actual costs exceed the benchmark, you can reimburse the full actual cost, but you must:

• Keep receipts for the full amount claimed
• Demonstrate that the cost was reasonable
• Be able to show HMRC the receipts if asked

If you pay above the benchmark without receipts, the excess is taxable as earnings and must be reported on the employee's P11D (or via payrolled benefits).

Paying Below the Benchmark Rates

If you reimburse less than the benchmark rate (or nothing at all), the employee can claim tax relief on the difference via their Self Assessment tax return or by contacting HMRC. The employee does not need receipts for claims up to the benchmark rate.

Overseas Subsistence Rates

HMRC also publishes scale rates for overseas travel. These vary by country and are significantly higher than the domestic rates. The rates are updated periodically and published in the HMRC Employment Income Manual.

Here are the current rates for the countries most commonly visited by UK business travellers:

Source: HMRC Employment Income Manual, Appendix 6 (worldwide scale rates). These rates are in local currency. The overnight rate applies when breakfast is provided by the hotel.

For overseas travel, the same principle applies: you can pay the scale rate without receipts, or pay actual costs with receipts. The overseas rates are far more generous than the domestic rates because HMRC acknowledges that food costs abroad are higher.

Scale Rate Payments vs Round Sum Allowances

There is a critical distinction here that trips up many employers:

Scale rate payments are specific amounts tied to the conditions above (journey length, departure/return time). They are tax-free when the conditions are met. This is what we have been discussing.

Round sum allowances are fixed daily payments regardless of actual circumstances (for example, "everyone gets £30/day when travelling"). These are treated as taxable earnings in full. The employee can then claim tax relief for their actual expenses, but the employer must report the allowance on P11D and pay Class 1A National Insurance.

Never pay a flat daily allowance and assume it is tax-free. Structure your payments around the HMRC benchmark conditions.

Who Can Claim What: Employees, Directors, and Sole Traders

The rules differ depending on your business structure and role.

Employees (Including Those of Limited Companies)

Employees have the clearest entitlement. When an employee travels to a temporary workplace, the employer can reimburse subsistence costs:

• At the benchmark scale rate (no receipts needed, no P11D)
• At actual cost with receipts (no P11D if the amount is reasonable)
• Via the company credit card or petty cash (recorded as business expense)

If the employer does not reimburse the employee, the employee can claim tax relief through Self Assessment. The claim is made on form P87 (for amounts under £2,500) or on the SA tax return.

An employee cannot claim subsistence for meals at their permanent workplace, even if they work irregular hours or eat at expensive locations. The test is always: were you at a temporary workplace?

Company Directors

Directors of limited companies are employees for tax purposes. They follow the same rules as any other employee. However, directors face additional scrutiny because they control the company's spending.

Key points for directors:

• Sole directors working from home: Your home is your permanent workplace. Client offices, meeting venues, and co-working spaces you visit are temporary workplaces. Meals at these locations qualify as subsistence.
• Directors with a company office: If you have a dedicated company office, that is your permanent workplace. Meals there do not qualify. Meals at client sites, conferences, and other temporary locations do.
• Director with multiple regular locations: If you regularly split your time between two offices (say, Monday-Wednesday at one, Thursday-Friday at another), HMRC may consider both to be permanent workplaces. Meals at either would not qualify as subsistence.
• Scale rates for directors: Yes, directors can use the HMRC benchmark scale rates. There is no rule that requires directors to use actual cost. However, given the scrutiny directors attract, keeping receipts is always advisable.
• Company pays vs personal expense: The company should pay subsistence costs directly or reimburse the director. If the director simply takes money from the company without proper documentation, it could be treated as a director's loan or informal dividend, with much worse tax consequences.

Sole Traders and Partnerships

Sole traders and partners in a partnership follow different rules. They cannot use the HMRC benchmark scale rates because those rates are specifically for employer-employee relationships (Employment Income Manual provisions).

For sole traders:

• You can deduct subsistence costs from your trading profits
• You must claim actual costs, not scale rates
• You need receipts for every claim
• The "wholly and exclusively" test applies strictly
• HMRC tends to scrutinise sole trader subsistence claims more heavily

The Commissioners in the case of Caillebotte v Quinn (1975) established that a self-employed person who incurs additional costs by eating away from home on business can deduct the additional cost. The key word is "additional." If you would have spent £5 on lunch at home and instead spent £12 at a restaurant while visiting a client, only the £7 difference is strictly deductible.

In practice, most sole traders claim the full cost of meals during business travel and HMRC rarely challenges reasonable claims. But the legal position is that only the additional cost qualifies, which is worth understanding if your claims are ever questioned.

IR35 and Off-Payroll Workers

If you operate through a personal service company (PSC) and a contract falls inside IR35, your subsistence rules depend on who pays:

• Client pays: The client's fee-payer applies PAYE. You can claim subsistence as an employee expense.
• PSC pays: Your company reimburses you. Standard employee subsistence rules apply.
• You pay personally: You can claim tax relief via Self Assessment.

The crucial point is that IR35 does not remove the right to claim subsistence. It changes the mechanism (employment deduction rather than trading deduction), but business travel to a temporary workplace still qualifies.

Rules for Business Travel: What Counts and What Does Not

Subsistence is only deductible during business travel. Understanding what qualifies as business travel is therefore essential.

What Is a Temporary Workplace?

HMRC defines a temporary workplace in the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003, section 339. A workplace is temporary if the employee:

• Goes there only to perform a task of limited duration, OR
• Goes there for some other temporary purpose

The location must not be a place where the employee works regularly. Regularity is the enemy of the subsistence claim.

Examples of temporary workplaces:

• A client's office you visit for a meeting
• A conference or exhibition venue
• A training venue
• A branch office you visit occasionally
• A construction site for a specific project
• A court (for solicitors attending hearings)
• A hospital (for consultants covering different trusts)

Not temporary workplaces:

• Your regular office
• A co-working space you use as your main base
• A client site where you work every week on an ongoing basis (see the 24-month rule)
• Your home office (this is your permanent workplace if you work from home)

The 24-Month Rule

The 24-month rule is the single most important temporal limitation on subsistence claims. It works like this:

A workplace that would otherwise be temporary becomes permanent once you know (or it becomes reasonable to assume) that you will work there for more than 24 months.

The rule has subtleties:

• It is based on expectation, not actual duration. If you expect a 12-month contract but it extends to 30 months, the workplace becomes permanent from the date you knew (or should have known) it would exceed 24 months.
• It applies per workplace, not per client. If you work at different offices for the same client, each office is assessed separately.
• The 40% test. A workplace only becomes permanent if you spend (or expect to spend) 40% or more of your working time there. Working at a client site one day per week (20%) over three years would not trigger the rule.
• Breaks reset the clock. If you leave a workplace for a significant period and then return, the 24-month clock may restart, depending on the circumstances.

Practical example: You start a contract at a client office in January 2025, expected to last 18 months. In October 2025, the client extends the contract to 36 months. From October 2025, that workplace is permanent. You can claim subsistence for January to October 2025, but not after.

The 24-month rule is set out in section 339A of the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003. HMRC's guidance in EIM32080 provides detailed examples.

Regular Commuting: The Hard Exclusion

Your daily commute to your permanent workplace is never deductible, regardless of the cost, distance, or inconvenience. This is a fundamental principle of UK tax law, established since 1858 in the case of Ricketts v Colquhoun.

This means:

• No subsistence on your commute, even if it takes three hours
• No meals claimed at your regular office, even if you start at 5 AM
• No food expenses on the journey between home and your fixed office

If you work from home and your home is your permanent workplace, there is no commute. Every journey to a different location is potentially business travel, and meals during those journeys may qualify as subsistence.

Mixed Business and Personal Travel

When a trip combines business and personal elements, you must apportion the subsistence claim:

• Business portion: Fully claimable (meals on business days)
• Personal portion: Not claimable (meals on personal days)
• Travel days: Generally claimable if the primary purpose of the journey is business

Example: You fly to Edinburgh for two days of client meetings and stay an extra day to visit the city. Meals on the two business days are claimable. Meals on the personal day are not. The flights may still be fully claimable if the primary purpose of the trip was business.

Receipting and Record-Keeping Requirements

Getting the records right is what separates a defensible subsistence claim from one that crumbles under HMRC scrutiny.

What HMRC Requires

For subsistence claims at or below the benchmark scale rate, HMRC does not require receipts. You must, however, keep records showing:

• The date of travel
• The departure and return times (to verify which benchmark rate applies)
• The destination (to confirm it was a temporary workplace)
• The business purpose of the journey

For claims above the benchmark rate, or for sole traders claiming actual costs, you need:

• Itemised receipts for all meals claimed
• Evidence of the business journey (train tickets, mileage log, diary entries)
• A clear record of the business purpose

What Constitutes a Valid Receipt?

A valid receipt for subsistence should show:

For VAT-registered businesses wanting to reclaim input VAT on subsistence, a simplified VAT invoice (receipt showing the vendor's VAT number, total including VAT, and the VAT rate) is sufficient for purchases under £250. Above £250, a full VAT invoice is required.

What Happens If You Lose a Receipt

Losing a receipt does not automatically disqualify the expense. HMRC's approach is pragmatic:

• Bank or credit card statement: Can support the claim as secondary evidence showing the amount, date, and vendor
• Duplicate receipt: Many restaurants and shops can reissue receipts from their systems
• Self-certification: For small amounts, a written record noting the date, amount, vendor, and business purpose is often accepted, though this is less robust than a receipt
• Pattern of claims: If you have receipts for 95% of your claims and one is missing, HMRC is unlikely to disallow the whole lot. If 50% are missing, you have a problem.

Best practice: photograph or scan receipts on the day of purchase. Thermal till receipts fade within months. A digital copy is just as valid as the original.

Digital Record Keeping Under Making Tax Digital

From April 2026, Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Self Assessment (MTD ITSA) requires sole traders and landlords with qualifying income above £50,000 to keep digital records and submit quarterly updates. This includes subsistence expenses.

For limited companies, digital records are already effectively required by Making Tax Digital for VAT (for VAT-registered businesses) and are best practice for Corporation Tax.

Key requirements:

• Records must be kept digitally (spreadsheets count, but dedicated software is better)
• Records must include the date, amount, and category of each expense
• Supporting evidence (receipts) should be stored digitally
• Records must be retained for at least 6 years

Common Mistakes That Cost Businesses Money

These are the errors we see most frequently, and the ones HMRC targets in enquiries.

Mistake 1: Claiming Personal Meals as Subsistence

The most common error. Your daily lunch at or near your permanent workplace is never subsistence, regardless of how you frame it. This includes:

• Buying lunch from Pret when you work at a regular office
• Ordering Deliveroo to your home office (your permanent workplace)
• Grabbing breakfast on the way to your normal workplace
• Eating at a restaurant near your regular office after work

The fix: only claim meals when you are genuinely travelling to a temporary workplace. If you did not travel for business that day, you cannot claim subsistence.

Mistake 2: Exceeding Benchmark Rates Without Receipts

If you reimburse an employee at £30 per day for meals but only have the benchmark rate of £10 for a 10-hour trip, the excess £20 is taxable. You must either:

• Keep receipts to support the full £30, OR
• Limit the reimbursement to the benchmark rate

Paying above benchmark without receipts creates a P11D reporting obligation, Class 1 National Insurance for the employee, and Class 1A for the employer. For a higher-rate taxpayer, a £20 excess per day over 100 travel days is £2,000 of taxable benefit, costing roughly £800 in tax and NI. That is an expensive administrative failure.

Mistake 3: Confusing Subsistence with Business Entertainment

This is the mistake that can make the entire meal non-deductible. The distinction is binary:

If a client or non-employee business contact is present at the meal, the entire cost is business entertainment. You cannot split the bill and claim your portion as subsistence while coding the client's portion as entertainment. The presence of the non-employee makes the whole meal entertainment.

Entertainment is disallowed for Corporation Tax (CTA 2009 s1298) and for sole traders (ITTOIA 2005 s45). You also cannot reclaim VAT on UK business entertainment (the sole exception being entertainment of overseas customers).

Mistake 4: Ignoring the 24-Month Rule

Contractors and consultants on long-term engagements are particularly exposed here. If you have been travelling to the same client site for 18 months and the contract is extended to 30 months, your subsistence claim stops from the date you knew it would exceed 24 months.

Many contractors continue claiming after this point, either through ignorance or optimism. HMRC routinely checks long-running engagements.

Mistake 5: Not Keeping a Travel Log

Without a contemporaneous record of your business travel (dates, destinations, times, business purpose), your subsistence claims have no foundation. HMRC does not need to disprove your claim. You need to prove it. No travel log means no evidence.

Mistake 6: Claiming Alcohol

Alcoholic drinks are not subsistence. HMRC is explicit about this. If your dinner bill includes a glass of wine, you should either:

• Deduct the cost of the alcohol from the claim
• Not reclaim VAT on the alcohol (the VAT rate on alcohol is standard, but it is not subsistence)

In practice, a glass of wine with dinner during a genuine business trip is rarely challenged in isolation. But habitual claims for alcohol, or significant alcohol on receipts, will attract attention during an enquiry.

Mistake 7: Claiming Meals When No Travel Occurred

Working late at the office does not entitle you to claim dinner. Working from home on a weekend does not create a subsistence claim. The trigger is always business travel to a temporary workplace. Without travel, there is no subsistence.

The one exception: the late evening meal benchmark (£15) applies when a trip finishes after 8:00 PM, provided the employee has already worked their normal day. This is a travel condition, not simply a "worked late" condition.

VAT on Subsistence Expenses

For VAT-registered businesses, subsistence is an area where input VAT can be reclaimed, but only if the paperwork is right.

What You Can Reclaim

You can reclaim input VAT on subsistence where:

• The business is VAT-registered
• The meal qualifies as deductible subsistence (not entertainment)
• You have a valid VAT receipt or simplified VAT invoice
• The receipt shows the vendor's VAT registration number

What You Cannot Reclaim

• VAT on meals that are business entertainment (client present)
• VAT on alcohol
• VAT where no valid VAT receipt exists (a standard till receipt without a VAT number is not sufficient)
• VAT on meals at your permanent workplace (the underlying expense is not deductible)

The VAT Receipt Problem

Many food outlets do not automatically provide VAT receipts. A standard till receipt from a cafe, sandwich shop, or fast-food outlet typically shows the total but not the VAT registration number or VAT breakdown.

To reclaim VAT, you need to ask for a VAT receipt at the point of purchase. For purchases under £250, a simplified VAT invoice (showing the retailer's name, address, VAT number, date, description of goods, and total including VAT) is sufficient.

If you regularly buy meals during business travel from outlets that do not provide VAT receipts, you are leaving money on the table. At 20% VAT on a £10 lunch, that is £1.67 per meal. Over 100 travel days, that is £167 in lost VAT recovery.

How AccountsOS Handles Subsistence Expenses

AccountsOS automates the tedious parts of subsistence expense management so you can focus on running your business.

Receipt Scanning and Extraction

Snap a photo of your meal receipt or forward the email receipt to your AccountsOS inbox. Finn, your AI accountant, extracts the vendor, date, amount, and VAT automatically. No manual data entry. The receipt is stored digitally, linked to the transaction, and available if HMRC ever asks.

Auto-Categorisation

When you upload a receipt from a restaurant, cafe, or food outlet during a business trip, Finn categorises it as subsistence automatically. If the meal looks like it could be entertainment (based on the amount, vendor type, or context), Finn flags it for your review rather than assuming.

VAT Reclaim

For VAT-registered businesses, AccountsOS identifies the VAT on subsistence receipts and includes it in your next VAT return. If a receipt is missing the vendor's VAT number, Finn flags it so you can either obtain a proper VAT receipt or exclude the VAT from your claim.

Benchmark Rate Tracking

If you reimburse employees or yourself at HMRC benchmark rates, AccountsOS tracks the qualifying conditions (travel duration, departure/return times) and flags when a payment exceeds the benchmark without a supporting receipt.

The 24-Month Rule Monitor

For directors and contractors travelling regularly to the same location, AccountsOS tracks the duration and alerts you as you approach the 24-month threshold. No more accidentally claiming subsistence at a workplace that has become permanent.

Expense Claims

Submit subsistence through AccountsOS expense claims with multi-currency support. Travelling abroad and paying in euros or dollars? The FX conversion is handled automatically at the actual exchange rate on the date of purchase.

Worked Examples

Example 1: Consultant Day Trip

Sarah runs an IT consultancy from her home office in Bristol. She takes the train to a client in London for a full-day meeting.

• Departs home at 6:30 AM
• Buys a coffee and croissant at Paddington Station: £6.80
• Buys lunch at a cafe near the client's office: £11.50
• Returns home at 7:00 PM

Claim: The full £18.30 is deductible subsistence. She was away for over 12 hours, travelling to a temporary workplace. She keeps both receipts and notes the client name and purpose. If she uses the benchmark approach instead, she could claim £10 (two-meal rate for 10+ hours) without receipts, but claiming actual costs with receipts gives her £8.30 more.

Example 2: Overnight Business Trip

Tom, a company director, travels to Edinburgh for a two-day client project.

• Day 1: Breakfast £8, lunch £12, dinner £32 (including £6 wine)
• Day 2: Breakfast £9, lunch £11
• Hotel room includes breakfast on checkout day

Claim: Day 1 deductible subsistence: £46 minus £6 for wine = £40. Day 2: £20 (breakfast + lunch). Hotel breakfast on day 3 is part of the accommodation cost. Total subsistence claim: £60. VAT is reclaimable on all food items where a VAT receipt was obtained (not on the wine).

Example 3: Sole Trader at a Trade Show

Priya, a sole trader graphic designer, attends a three-day design exhibition in Birmingham. She normally works from home in Manchester.

• Travel: Train tickets £95 return
• Day 1: Lunch £9, coffee £3.50
• Day 2: Lunch £11, coffee £4
• Day 3: Lunch £8.50

Claim: All food costs (£36) are deductible as subsistence. As a sole trader, she claims actual costs (not benchmark rates). She keeps all receipts and notes that the exhibition was for business development. The train tickets are a separate travel expense claim.

Example 4: The 24-Month Trap

James, a contractor, starts a project at a client's Manchester office in March 2024. His home office in Sheffield is his permanent workplace. The initial contract is 12 months.

• March 2024 to February 2025: Full subsistence claim. Temporary workplace.
• March 2025: Contract extended to June 2026 (total 27 months). James now knows the engagement will exceed 24 months.
• From March 2025: Manchester becomes his permanent workplace. No more subsistence claim for meals at that location.
• Any subsistence claimed after March 2025 for meals at the Manchester site is incorrect and must be corrected.

Subsistence for Different Business Structures: Summary Table

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the current HMRC subsistence rates for UK business travel?

HMRC benchmark scale rates for domestic subsistence are: £5 for breakfast (departure before 6:00 AM), £5 for a one-meal allowance (trips over 5 hours spanning 12:00-2:00 PM), £10 for a two-meal allowance (trips over 10 hours), £15 for a late evening meal (return after 8:00 PM having worked a normal day), and £25 for a 24-hour rate. These rates allow employers to reimburse employees without receipts and without creating a tax charge. They are set out in HMRC Employment Income Manual at EIM05231.

Can I claim meals when working from home?

No. Working from home is not business travel. Your home office is your permanent workplace, and meals consumed there are personal expenses. Subsistence only applies when you travel away from your normal workplace to a temporary location for business purposes. If you travel from your home office to a client meeting, meals during that journey qualify. But eating lunch at your desk in your home office never does.

What is the difference between subsistence and business entertainment?

Subsistence is food and drink you buy for yourself (and colleagues who are employees of the same business) during business travel. It is tax-deductible. Business entertainment is food, drink, or hospitality provided to clients, prospects, suppliers, or anyone who is not an employee. It is not tax-deductible for Corporation Tax or Income Tax purposes, and VAT on UK business entertainment cannot be reclaimed. The test is simple: if a non-employee business contact is present at the meal, it is entertainment.

Do I need receipts for every meal I claim?

If you are an employee (including a director) and your employer reimburses you at or below the HMRC benchmark scale rates, no receipts are required. You do need a record of travel dates, times, and destinations. If you claim above the benchmark rate, receipts are required. If you are a sole trader, receipts are required for all subsistence claims because sole traders cannot use the benchmark scale rate system.

Can a sole director of a limited company claim subsistence?

Yes. A sole director is an employee of the company for tax purposes and has the same right to claim subsistence as any other employee. When you travel from your normal workplace (typically your home office) to a temporary location such as a client meeting, conference, or supplier visit, your company can reimburse your meal costs tax-free. You can use the benchmark scale rates or claim actual costs with receipts. The company deducts the cost as a business expense.

What happens if I claim subsistence at a site where I have worked for more than 24 months?

Once you know (or should reasonably know) that you will work at a location for more than 24 months, it becomes a permanent workplace. From that point, meals at that location are no longer deductible as subsistence. Any claims made after this point are incorrect and could result in additional tax, National Insurance, and potentially penalties if HMRC regards it as careless or deliberate. The 24-month rule is in section 339A of the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003.

Can I reclaim VAT on subsistence expenses?

Yes, provided your business is VAT-registered, the meal qualifies as deductible subsistence (not entertainment), and you have a valid VAT receipt showing the vendor's VAT registration number. Standard till receipts often lack this detail, so ask for a VAT receipt at the time of purchase. For purchases under £250, a simplified VAT invoice is sufficient. You cannot reclaim VAT on alcohol or on meals that are classified as business entertainment.

Are overseas subsistence rates different from UK rates?

Yes. HMRC publishes separate benchmark scale rates for overseas travel, and they are significantly higher than domestic rates. For example, the 24-hour rate for New York is $99, compared to £25 for the UK. Overseas rates vary by country and city, and are published in the HMRC Employment Income Manual, Appendix 6. The same principle applies: you can pay the scale rate without receipts, or pay actual costs with receipts.

Can I claim for alcohol as part of a subsistence expense?

No. Alcoholic drinks are not subsistence. If your meal receipt includes alcohol, you should deduct the cost of the alcohol from your subsistence claim. HMRC is explicit that subsistence covers food and non-alcoholic drinks only. In practice, a modest glass of wine with dinner during a genuine overnight business trip is rarely challenged on its own, but systematic claims for alcohol will attract scrutiny, and VAT on alcohol purchased for personal consumption is not reclaimable.

How long do I need to keep subsistence receipts?

HMRC requires you to retain business records for at least 6 years from the end of the relevant accounting period (for companies) or tax year (for sole traders). For VAT purposes, records must be kept for 6 years. Given that HMRC can open an enquiry up to 6 years after the return is filed (and up to 20 years in cases of deliberate error), keeping digital copies of all receipts for at least 6 years is essential. Photograph or scan receipts on the day of purchase, because thermal till receipts fade and become illegible within months.

Sources and Further Reading

• HMRC Employment Income Manual EIM05231: Benchmark scale rates (domestic subsistence rates)
• HMRC Employment Income Manual EIM31810-EIM31835: Travel expenses (travel and subsistence rules)
• HMRC Employment Income Manual EIM32080: The 24-month rule
• HMRC Business Income Manual BIM37600: Travel and subsistence (sole traders and partnerships)
• Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003, sections 337-339A (statutory definition of travel expenses)
• CTA 2009 s1298: Business entertainment disallowance
• HMRC guidance on scale rate payments and advances

Last updated: June 2026. Rates and thresholds are for the 2025/26 tax year. Check gov.uk for any changes in subsequent years.