Claiming back the money you spend on food is allowed if you're self-employed – but you can't just claim everything you eat. So, what's the deal with claiming lunch as a business expense?

The answer depends on why you’re buying lunch, where you’re working, and whether you’re a Sole Trader or director of a Limited Company. Our article will deep dive into claiming your lunch as a business expense.

The rules on claiming food and drink expenses

Being self-employed gives you the ability to claim back allowable business expenses. If you work through your own limited company, this reduces your company's profit, and therefore its Corporation Tax bill.

For the 2026/27 financial year, the Corporation Tax rate is 19% for companies with profits of £50,000 or less, and 25% for profits over £250,000. Companies with profits between these amounts can claim marginal relief. With rates like these, it's well worth reducing your profits by claiming every allowable expense.

If you work as a Sole trader rather than through a Limited Company, allowable business expenses will reduce your profits, meaning you'll pay less Income Tax and National Insurance when you complete your Self Assessment.

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HMRC's general rule is that you can only claim expenses that are "wholly and exclusively" for the purposes of your business. This is why food and drink expenses can be tricky – after all, everyone needs to eat to survive.

The key is that you can claim for a meal as a 'subsistence' cost, but it has to be incurred while you're on a business journey that is outside your normal working routine. If you're just heading to your usual place of work, you can't claim for your lunch.HMRC generally treats meals bought during qualifying business travel as subsistence expenses.

To make things even trickier, the rules are different depending on whether you operate as a Sole Trader or a Limited Company.

Can a Sole Trader claim lunch as a business expense?

As a Sole Trader, you can claim the cost of food and drink when you're travelling for business. For example, if you travel to another city for a client meeting, the lunch you buy during that business journey would generally be an allowable expense.

You can't normally claim the cost of lunch simply because you're working. For example, buying a sandwich from a café near your usual place of work isn't automatically an allowable business expense just because you're self-employed.

However, there's a common misconception that you can claim a flat daily rate. This isn't true. HMRC does not provide a fixed daily food allowance for self-employed individuals. You must claim the actual cost of your meal, where the expense qualifies, and you should keep a record of the expense and evidence to support your claim.

The rules for Sole Traders:

Here’s a little decision checker to help you identify whether you might be able to claim that meal as a business expense as a Sole Trader:

• Travelling to a temporary workplace or on a qualifying business journey? Your lunch may be an allowable subsistence expense.
• Eating lunch at your usual place of work? Generally, you can’t claim it.
• Working from home? You can’t simply claim your normal lunch because you’re working from home. 
• Meeting a client somewhere? The fact that you’re meeting a client doesn’t automatically make your lunch allowable sadly. The wider business journey and circumstances matter.
• Using a flat daily food allowance? Sole Traders can generally claim the actual qualifying costs rather than the employee benchmark scale rates.

Real example

You’re a freelance designer based in Manchester and travel to Birmingham for a client meeting. You can buy lunch while you’re there because the meal is part of a qualified business journey. By contrast, having lunch from a cafe across the street from his usual working place would normally be treated as a personal cost. 

Can a Limited Company director claim lunch as a business expense?

If you're the director of a Limited Company, you're also an employee. This means you have two options for claiming subsistence. You can either claim the actual cost of your meal (and keep the receipt!) or use HMRC's benchmark scale rates.

If you’re travelling on a qualifying business journey, your company can generally reimburse the actual cost of your meal or, where the conditions are met, use HMRC’s benchmark scale rates.

These benchmark rates can be paid to you by your company without needing to keep a receipt for the meal itself, as long as you were on a qualifying business trip. The current rates are:

• £5 if your business trip lasts for 5 hours or more
• £10 if your business trip lasts for 10 hours or more
• £25 for a late evening meal if you have to work later than usual and finish after 8pm

If the £5 or £10 rate applies and your qualifying journey continues beyond 8pm, a £10 supplementary rate can also be paid to cover an additional meal. These are not simply daily lunch allowances you can claim whenever you're working. The business journey must qualify, and your company must follow the relevant rules when using benchmark rates.

Your company must have a system in place to check that employees are actually on qualifying business journeys when they claim these rates.

Real example of how this works:

If you’re a Limited Company director travelling to a temporary workplace for a client project and your business trip meets the relevant conditions, your company may be able to reimburse your qualifying meal costs or pay the appropriate benchmark rate. However, if you’re buying lunch at your normal permanent workplace, you can’t simply put it through your company as a tax-free business expense because you’re a director.

What makes a workplace 'temporary'?

Whether you're a Sole Trader or a Limited Company director, you can only claim for subsistence when you're travelling to a 'temporary workplace'.

HMRC's rules on this are complex. A workplace is considered temporary if you go there only to perform a task of limited duration or for a temporary purpose.

The 24-month rule is particularly important for contractors and directors who regularly work at a client's premises. If you expect to work at the same workplace for more than 24 months, and you're spending at least 40% of your working time there, it will generally be treated as a permanent workplace for tax purposes.

This means that a Contractor working through their own Limited Company shouldn’t assume that meals are allowable simply because they’re working at a client’s office. The nature and expected duration of the engagement matter. 

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Can I claim a business lunch with a client?

Not automatically. Taking a client out for lunch is different from buying lunch for yourself while travelling for business. The tax treatment of business entertaining has its own rules, and the cost of entertaining a client is generally not an allowable deduction for Corporation Tax purposes. So don’t assume putting “client lunch” on a receipt makes the whole meal tax-deductible.

If you’re unsure whether a particular client meal is an allowable expense, it’s worth checking the specific circumstances rather than treating every business-related meal as deductible. 

What about breakfasts, dinner, and other food expenses?

The same basic principle applies to other meals. Breakfast, dinner, snacks, and drinks can potentially fall under subsistence when they’re necessary costs of qualifying business travel, including where an overnight stay is required. HMRC’s guidance specifically includes necessary meals purchased while an employee is travelling or at a temporary workplace.

However, your normal everyday food and drink remains a personal expense. So if you’re just assuming that because you ate it while you worked it’s claimable then we’ve got some bad news. HMRC looks at whether the additional food cost was incurred because you were travelling for business. 

Can I claim lunch? A quick guide

Not sure whether your lunch is an allowable business expense? Here's the quick version:

The golden rule: Keep your records

Whether you're claiming the actual cost of a meal or your company is using benchmark rates, good record-keeping is essential.

For any expense claim, you must keep records to prove it. For meal expenses, this means holding onto original receipts that show the date, the name of the establishment, and what you bought.

HMRC is increasingly focused on ensuring taxpayers don't claim for personal spending, so having clear evidence is your best defence. In general, you must keep all your business records for at least three years from the end of the tax year they relate to.

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