Expenses and tax

Volunteers will continue to be entitled to tax-free reimbursement of their out of pocket expenses.

Expenses and tax
Most of the expenses you incur at work as an employee are paid for by your employer. Other work expenses – particularly travel and accommodation expenses – are reimbursed by your employer.

From April 2016, the system is being simplified, and HMRC will usually accept that business expenses which are reimbursed by your employer are not taxable benefits for you.
When an expense is reimbursed, HMRC has to be satisfied that the expense is allowable for tax purposes, otherwise the reimbursement from your employer is treated as additional taxable income.

Example: Alison is a sales manager. She is asked to attend a special sales event in the evening. She pays a babysitter to look after her children. The employer reimburses her for the cost of the babysitter. HMRC would not consider that the expense was allowable. It would not have been necessarily incurred by any holder of the office of sales manager. Tax would therefore be payable on the reimbursement.
(See http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/eimanual/EIM31648.htm)

Reimbursed expenses, general rules and special cases
Volunteers will continue to be entitled to tax-free reimbursement of their out of pocket expenses.
http://www.sandy-a.co.uk/employment.htm#tax-allowances

Different rules apply from 6 April 2016. The new system gives a tax exemption for expenses which would be tax-deductible under normal rules. You can find the details here:
https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-i…/employment-income-manual/eim30210