Working away allowance: meals, nights and HMRC's rates

A working away allowance is what your employer pays for meals and a bed away from home. The amount is the contract's; HMRC sets the tax-free rates.

HMRC's benchmark rates for meals

An employer may pay a flat sum for meals on a qualifying business journey, free of tax and National Insurance, up to HMRC's benchmark scale rates. The table in HMRC's manual at EIM30240 gives, by the minimum length of the journey:

Minimum journey time	Maximum meal allowance
5 hours	£5
10 hours	£10
15 hours, and ongoing at 8pm	£25

Where the £5 or £10 rate is paid and the journey lasts beyond 8pm, a supplementary £10 can be paid. The page says these are the maximum tax-free amounts for employers who choose to use the system; an employer can pay less, or pay actual costs against receipts instead. Check the page itself before relying on a figure: it is HMRC's, not Muster's.

An overnight stay is different again: the hotel is usually paid or reimbursed on the bill, and a night away may also earn a flat allowance under your agreement. That allowance is a term of employment, not an HMRC rate.

How Muster does it

Muster records the parts of a week away that a claim is made from, and prices the ones your agreement gives a rate to.

Nights away. Tick Overnight stay on the day's entry, with the country you slept in, and the night is counted at the UK or the overseas rate your agreement sets. Summary adds them up for the period in an Allowances row. See Nights away and overnight allowance.
Hours and overtime. The week's hours, travel included, worked out by your employer's rules. See Working away: overtime and nights on one timesheet.
Receipts. Snap a meal receipt or the hotel's itemised bill and Muster reads it, line by line for a hotel, so personal lines such as the bar can be marked as not claimed. Receipts are shown with the period, never added to your pay. See Receipts.

Muster does not pay a meal allowance by the hour: there is no setting for the £5, £10 and £25 rates. Nights are the allowance it prices. A meal allowance your agreement pays per day is claimed the way your employer asks, with the days and hours Muster recorded as the evidence.

A worked example

Four nights away in the UK on an agreement that pays a flat £15 a night, which is Muster's shipped default, and meals against receipts.

Recorded	What Muster shows
Four entries ticked Overnight stay, country United Kingdom	Summary: Overnight UK 4, Allowances £60
Three meal receipts and one hotel bill, snapped	Reports: the Expenses card for the cycle, each receipt under its day
The week's hours	Reports: the columns, worked out by the rules

Try it in the demo: its invented month has nights away, and the Receipts page shows a hotel bill read line by line.

Questions people ask

Is a night-away allowance taxable?

That depends on what it is for and how it is paid, and it is a question for your employer or HMRC, not for a timesheet. Muster counts the nights and shows the sum at your rate; it does not work out tax.

Can I claim meals without receipts?

HMRC's benchmark rates exist for exactly that, up to the amounts in the table, where the employer has chosen to use them. Your employer's policy says whether it does.

Does Muster know which country I slept in?

Set a home town and the days you work away from your home country are recorded as stays from your timesheet, each named by its town. The country on the day's entry is what the night's rate follows.

Try the demo - invented data, no account. Request a demo to use it for real. The manual has every screen.