EIM66120 - Tax treatment of lorry drivers: subsistence allowances paid to lorry drivers: documentary evidence
Where documentary evidence is needed to support a checking system for scale rate subsistence payments, it may include:
- receipts
- drivers’ log sheets
- drivers’ expenses claims
- receipts obtained on payment for lodging (for example hotel bills)
- parking receipts and itinerary records kept by the employer in the pay records, or separately, as evidence of nights away from home and permanent workplace
The list is not exhaustive and employers may need to make further enquiries to be satisfied that tax-free payment is justified.
Employers will need to retain evidence to show that they have undertaken checks in accordance with the checking system that they proposed when making their application for an approval notice. This evidence may be required when the employer is subject to an employer compliance review.
Removal of checking requirement for benchmark scale rates from 6 April 2019
From 6 April 2019, employers will no longer be required to operate a system for checking an employee’s expenditure in order to make payments free of tax in relation to expenses paid or reimbursed using benchmark scale rates. Instead, employers will only be required to ensure that employees are undertaking qualifying travel on occasions in respect of which a payment is made or reimbursed and that neither the employer nor any other person knows or suspects or could reasonably be expected to know or suspect, that travel was not undertaken. See EIM30225. A checking system will however still be necessary if subsistence payments are made using bespoke rates.