View from A+E+L: How to reclaim overseas travel costs

Las Vegas. Fortunes made and lost on the spin of a roulette wheel. Which brings me to one of the most frequently asked questions by practice owners; how much of a gamble is claiming overseas travel expenses as a tax deduction?

Vision Expo West (VEW) is taking place in Las Vegas as I type so it seems topical to look at overseas travel costs. When assessing whether HMRC would challenge a practice owner for deducting the costs of accommodation, travel & subsistence, the dual aspects of distance and cost are irrelevant to their decision.

Regardless of whether a UK practitioner is travelling to a BCLA conference in Liverpool or in Hong Kong, one of the key issues is whether the costs are being incurred for the benefit of a trade. In this respect HMRC’s internal manuals state ‘it does not matter that the same result could have been achieved by different means’.