HGV driver meal allowance and overnight subsistence rates

What is the meal allowance for HGV drivers?

There are two separate things, and they are often mixed up. For a night away from home, HMRC has agreed an industry rate for lorry drivers: up to £34.90 a night, or £26.20 a night if the driver sleeps in a sleeper cab. For a day trip, employers can use HMRC's benchmark meal rates of £5, £10 or £25 depending on journey time.

Both are for employers paying employees. They are not an allowance a driver can simply claim. A self-employed driver has no fixed rate and claims the reasonable cost of meals actually bought. The sources are HMRC's Employment Income Manual (EIM66205) and EIM66210.

The lorry driver overnight rate

An employer can apply to HMRC for an approval notice to use the agreed haulage industry scale rate for nights away from home in the UK. With a valid approval notice and a checking system in place, the employer does not deduct Income Tax or National Insurance from payments up to these amounts.

The rate covers the cost of food and other costs such as upkeep of the cab. For a sleeper-cab driver, HMRC says it should be a reasonable reimbursement of an evening meal and breakfast, washing facilities and upkeep of bedding in the cab. See EIM66130.

The rate applies in the UK only. For nights abroad, HMRC publishes separate overseas rates. The approval notice is valid for up to 5 years. These figures are as shown in HMRC's manual at the date of this guide, so check them before you rely on them.

Day trips: the benchmark meal rates

If an employee is on a business journey in the UK and buys a meal as a result, the employer can pay up to the benchmark scale rates without an approval notice.

Where the £5 or £10 rate is paid and the journey runs beyond 8pm, a supplementary £10 can be added. Since 6 April 2019 the employer does not need a system to check what the employee spent, but must make sure the employee did make a qualifying journey and have no reason to think they did not.

You cannot have both for the same night

The overnight rate already includes meals. HMRC is clear that an employee can be reimbursed for a meal only once, so an employer paying the overnight rate should not also pay for those meals on an actual-cost basis or with the benchmark rates.

Employers can also pay incidental overnight costs on top: up to £5 a night for a night in the UK, or £10 for a night abroad. Where there are several nights in one trip, the limit is averaged across the trip. If a payment goes over the limit, the whole payment becomes taxable, not just the excess.

Employed drivers: what if your employer does not pay it?

If you buy meals or pay for overnight costs yourself on a qualifying trip, you may be able to claim tax relief from HMRC. HMRC's guidance notes the relief is at your tax rate, so for most drivers it is 20% of what you spent, not the full amount.

• Claim online through your personal tax account, or by form P87.
• You can claim for the current tax year and the previous 4.
• You need receipts showing the date and the name of the hotel or restaurant.
• If your claim for a tax year is more than £2,500, you must complete a Self Assessment return instead.
• You cannot claim relief on incidental overnight expenses that your employer does not reimburse.

Start with GOV.UK: travel and overnight expenses. If you already file a return, the claim goes through the return.

Self-employed lorry drivers

If you are genuinely self-employed, the employer scale rates do not apply to you. Instead you deduct the reasonable cost of meals and accommodation on a business trip that needs one or more nights away from home. HMRC's manual says the same treatment may extend to self-employed long-distance lorry drivers who spend the night in their cab rather than a hotel. See BIM47705 and GOV.UK's list of allowable travel expenses, which includes meals on overnight business trips.

Three limits to know:

• Everyday lunches are normally a cost of living. A deduction for food and drink away from your base only applies in the cases BIM47705 describes, such as an itinerant trade.
• Overnight costs at your base of operations are not deductible.
• You claim what you reasonably spent. HMRC's manual does not give self-employed drivers a flat nightly figure, so keep receipts or other evidence.

If you drive your own vehicle you also have a choice between actual vehicle costs and flat mileage rates. See our mileage allowance guide.

What counts as travel away from home

Subsistence is only allowable when the travel itself qualifies. Ordinary commuting does not. Travel to a temporary workplace can qualify, and HMRC applies a 24-month test to work out whether a workplace is temporary. Depots and similar bases have their own rules. HMRC's manual sets all of this out from EIM32000. For a driver on delivery runs the position is usually clear, but a regular drive from a fixed yard to the same place needs thought.

Evidence: what to keep

• Receipts for meals, showers, parking and accommodation.
• A timestamped photo of a meal or other digital evidence where no receipt exists. HMRC accepts this, for example at a truck stop.
• Trip records showing dates, start and end points and nights away.
• For employers, the notes of the checks you carry out under your approval notice.

HMRC does not expect an employee to have receipts for the full scale-rate amount each night, because part of it covers things such as laundry of bedding. It does expect the employer to confirm that meals were actually bought.

Common mistakes

• Paying a flat nightly sum with no approval notice. Without it, the payment is taxable through payroll.
• Paying the overnight rate and the benchmark meal rate for the same trip.
• Treating the employer rates as an automatic claim for self-employed drivers.
• Claiming meals on days that are not a qualifying journey.
• Throwing away receipts, then having no evidence if HMRC asks.