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R
Raphy
September 27, 2020
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Why are my travel expenses marked as 'disallowable'?

  • September 27, 2020
  • 1 reply
  • 0 views

Certain transactions are being logged as 'disallowable'. For example:

 

- AirBnb correctly categorised as 'Travel Expense' is disallowable

- Train tickets from TrainLine correctly caterogised as 'Travel Expense' is disallowable. 

 

However, some other transactions for the same companies, for the same categories, are allowable. 

 

WHY?! 

Best answer by Maybelle_S

To be absolutely clear, I am very well-versed in what constitutes allowable travel expenses for tax purposes in my business. These are allowable expenses. It is QuickBooks that has for some reason automatically categorised them as disallowable


I want to ensure this is taken care of, @Joanna_A.

 

To further investigate this, I'd suggest reaching our Customer Support Team. They can access your account securely and check the transactions setup.

 

Here's how:

 

  1. Go to the Help icon to connect to a live support agent.
  2. Click on the Contact Us button.
  3. Provide us with some information about your concern in the What can we help you with? box and click on Continue.
  4. You'll now be provided options for connecting to our Customer Support.

 

I've added these articles about expenses and how to review transactions in QuickBooks: 

 

 

Fill me in if you have additional questions about expenses in QuickBooks. I'm always here to help. Take care.

1 reply

M
mv32
September 27, 2020

Thanks for posting to the Community, @Raphy.

 

Let me share some information about the categories that are showing under travel expenses. 

 

QuickBooks Self-Employed uses the Simplified Expenses (with flat rates) method to calculate the allowable business expenses for your car, van, or motorcycle. The rate will depend on the mileage you drive.

 

Using this method, you're unable to claim vehicle insurance, repairs, and servicing, or fuel costs. You can declare all other travel expenses in addition to your simplified expense amount. 

 

You'll categorize a transaction as travel expense when it's your train, bus, air, and taxi fares, as well as lodging and food costs while traveling overnight. Then, car/van expense if it's vehicle expenses like insurance, repairs, servicing, fuel, and parking. For more information, review this article: About Car, Van, and Travel Expenses.

 

The expenses that can be tagged as allowable are deducted from your taxable profit under the SA103F categories. However, disallowable expenses are transactions that can't be deducted from your business income. For more details, you can check out these helpful articles:

 

You can also consult your accountant if you need professional advice in categorising transactions.

 

Feel free to post a comment below if you have more questions. I'll be around to help. Stay safe and well!

R
RaphyAuthor
September 27, 2020

Hi @mv32 ,

 

Thank you for the copy and paste response that I could have found on many other threads. Unfortunately, it doesn't address my questions even a little bit. 

 

You said:

 

"You'll categorize a transaction as travel expense when it's your train, bus, air, and taxi fares, as well as lodging and food costs while traveling overnight."

 

I know this, and have specified in my question that I have correctly categorised my transactions as 'Travel Expense'. 

 

Now answer my question: why is this showing up as disallowable? 

 

M
mv32
September 27, 2020

Thanks for your prompt response, @Raphy.

 

It's because QuickBooks Self-Employed (QBSE) uses the simplified expense method that I posted a while ago. You may check and ensure to tag these transactions as a Business type expense so that you can successfully show it as an allowable cost.

 

If this is already tag and categorise that way, I'd recommend reaching to our chat support for QBSE. They have tools to help review the expense entries. They can also investigate this further via screen share and part the best fixes.

 

Here's how to contact them:

  1. Click Help in the upper-right hand corner.
  2. Click Contact Us. 
  3. Fill in Ask a question, then select Continue.
  4. Select Chat.

 

Please let me know or share us if you need further assistance. I'm always here to help. Take care!

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