In about 1998 I enquired of the Inland revenue whether my internet account had a tax deductible component since I used it in the course of my ministry. At that time the answer was no. I gather that this has now changed. So it seems to me that a clergybeing, say, who cycles round the parish can claim already I think for an appropriate proportion of their cycle's maintainance costs, should be able to claim something for 'fuel', just as they would if it were a car they were using. "If you ride a bike in the course of doing business and consume extra calories to do so, then the food you eat should be a legitimate business expense."
I can see the arguments over what constitutes a reasonable price [so as to exclude those Savoy prices!] but they will come to an acceptable compromise like over heating and lighting for homeworkers and so forth...
Treehugger: Ride a bike? Maybe your food is a tax-deductable expense.:
20 September 2005
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"Spend and tax" not "tax and spend"
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2 comments:
This is where the accountant within me kicks in. You can't claim tax on food which you could have provided from home. A trip involving a hotel stay and food from the hotel would be ok, but general food consumption as part of daily life isn't covered. We had a client trying to claim back tax on petrol used visiting other shops recently, that's fine but claiming tax back on the bacon butty he also had whilst driving around wasn't.
What you can claim for though as you say is the maintenence, a few pence per mile last time I checked. There's also fiddles you can do with buying the bike for business use, ask your accountant. My employer is actually rather good on cycling expenses, I get 40p/mile if I can justify not walking - I want to do the 60 miles over to Sheffield at some point just to annoy them.
Points taken all. On the other hand ... the point is the extra calories and other nutrients that are needed over and above what would be used if the journey was either not made or was made by, say, car where the fuel and depreciation costs of the car are tax deductable. Otherwise you are penalising those who use the energy of their own bodies rather than external energy sources. If I eat more to compensate for travel using my own muscles then that expense should be on a par with petrol expenses. Surely?
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