Travel expenses for work
Keep those receipts! If you pay for travel or food before or during a business trip, you might be able to claim back that money from your employer.
These costs are exempt from tax so it’s very much in the interests of the business to claim them back, as it results in better profits. If you’re the one making the decisions about what your company allows to be claimed back, we suggest reading up about expenses on the HMRC website. Any expense rules should be included in the travel policy.
But back to travel. Generally, travel expenses fall into:
- Booking costs made before the trip
- In-destination spend
Booking/upfront travel expenses
Air, train and hotel bookings
Best booked in advance for the best prices. Save all those emails and any paper tickets so you have proof of how much you spent and can claim the money back.
If you’re booking through a platform like Melon, you won’t need to expense any of this, as payment is all handled by your company directly.
Travel insurance
Most companies have travel insurance in place for employees but if not, you’ll need to buy your own before travelling. Again, save the policy information and payment emails so you can claim.
In-destination travel expenses
If you’re using our Melon mobile app, you can take photos of your receipts as you’re going along, so you know they’re in one place. But try to keep the paper ones too, just in case.
Getting around
Taxis, London Underground, trams. Hold onto all of those tickets and receipts so you can expense them when you get home.
Food and drink
Check your expense policy here as the rules aren’t the same for every company. You may be able to expense breakfast, lunch, dinner and drinks or there might be a cap on how much you can spend per day.
Entertainment
If you’re on the trip to build a relationship or negotiate a deal you’ll inevitably pick up the bill. Store the receipts for those meals, drinks or show to claim back when you get back to the office. This should be covered in your company policy too.
How to claim and file expenses correctly
It’s usually not the easiest of processes. If it’s been a big trip, filing expenses can take ages to sort out. That’s not a productive use of anyone’s time. It’s either a manual process using Excel, or an online platform that requires you to upload a copy of the receipt and then fields such as type of expense, department code and the price, converted into pounds if you’ve been elsewhere.
Alternatively, if you’re a customer of ours you get access to Melon. The booking expenses are paid for centrally so you don’t even need to expense those. And you can store receipts in the mobile app which converts the information into a table, so it makes it easier to submit everything when you’re home. No brainer really.
When to file expenses
As soon as you can! It’s easy to forget and you might lose some receipts otherwise. Make it part of your coming home routine. Debrief the team, catch up with the boss, submit expenses.
Legally, businesses must claim back travel expenses within four years of the end of the tax year that the money was spent. But don’t leave it that late.
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