Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 section 240

Incidental overnight expenses and benefits

Section 240 provides a tax exemption for small personal expenses that employees incur when they have to stay away from home overnight for work purposes, such as newspapers, personal phone calls, or laundry.

• When an employee stays away from home overnight for work, payments or reimbursements for incidental personal expenses are exempt from income tax, provided the expenses are not otherwise deductible as employment expenses
• The exemption also covers benefits in kind that are incidental to an overnight work absence, removing any taxable benefit charge that would otherwise arise
• To qualify, the employee must be obliged to stay away from home for a continuous period that includes at least one overnight stay, and the travel to each overnight location must itself qualify as allowable business travel or work-related training travel
• The exemption is subject to an overall monetary limit set out in section 241, and certain foreign travel provisions relating to visiting family members and overseas employment accommodation are excluded from the qualifying conditions