Can I claim food and lunch as a self-employed tradesperson?

Not for your everyday lunch on site, which HMRC's manual (BIM47705) treats as a normal living cost. In 2026-27 you can claim reasonable meals on jobs that need a night away, and on occasional trips outside your normal pattern.

The meal deal from the garage and the bacon roll from the café are the expenses tradespeople most often ask about, and the answer is usually no. The rule is the "wholly and exclusively" test in section 34 of the Income Tax (Trading and Other Income) Act 2005, with the travel exceptions in section 57A, as HMRC's Business Income Manual (BIM) explains it, checked on 16 October 2026.

Why the site lunch is not claimable

HMRC's starting point is that food and drink are not spent wholly and exclusively for the business, "since everyone must eat in order to live". It goes further: you cannot claim even the extra cost of eating away from home, because no part of the cost can be split out as business.

This has been tested on tradespeople. HMRC's manual (BIM37675) cites Caillebotte v Quinn (1975) as the authority for refusing a subcontractor's lunches where there is a regular pattern of travel to different sites close to home. In Prior v Saunders (1993), a self-employed ceiling fixer who worked for several years in an area away from his home base also had his food costs refused. The judge said money spent on food is not wholly spent for the trade.

When food can be claimed

There are three situations where food is deductible.

A night away. When a job needs one or more nights away from home, the room and reasonable meals are allowable, whether or not the meals are on the same bill. This does not apply at the base of your operations, even if a contract requires you to live there.

An occasional trip outside your normal pattern. Reasonable food and drink are allowable if the travel itself is a business cost, you do not go to that place more than occasionally, and the trip is not part of your normal pattern of travel (or you have no normal pattern).

An itinerant trade. If your trade is by its nature itinerant, reasonable food and drink while travelling for it can be claimed. HMRC's example is a commercial traveller. Working at a few local sites in turn is not enough, as the Caillebotte case shows.

GOV.UK's list of travel costs includes hotel rooms and meals on overnight business trips. HMRC's manual says the same treatment can be extended to self-employed long-distance lorry drivers who sleep in their cabs.

Quick guide for trades

What this means for you

Take a plasterer who spends £7 a day on lunch over 220 working days: £1,540 a year, none of it claimable. The same plasterer takes a job 150 miles away, staying 4 nights in a B&B at £65 a night and spending £18 on each evening meal. That trip is claimable: £260 for the rooms and £72 for the meals, £332 in total.

If the plasterer's profit sits between £12,570 and £50,270, outside Scotland, the £332 saves 20% Income Tax and 6% Class 4 National Insurance, £86.32. This is an example only. HMRC's manual stresses that only reasonable amounts are allowed, backed by records kept at the time.

Steps to claim food the right way

1. Keep everyday lunches out of your business records. Pay for them personally if you can.
2. For a job away, keep the accommodation receipt and each meal receipt.
3. Note the job, the address and why you stayed away, for example "rewire in Leeds, too far to travel daily".
4. For a one-off day trip, note why it was outside your usual area and how often you go there.
5. Record the costs as travel expenses in your bookkeeping or Making Tax Digital (MTD) software.
6. If a long job starts to look like your base, check BIM37670 before claiming more.

Our guides to travel from home to site and what tradespeople can claim cover the related rules.

The free MTD check shows when MTD starts for you, and the trades section has more guides for tradespeople.