You've got the mileage bit exactly right — 45p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles in the tax year, then 25p a mile after that — and keeping a journey log is exactly what HMRC wants to see. Well done on that.
The golden rule for everything else is "wholly and exclusively" for business:
Business travel vs commuting: travel to client sites and temporary workplaces counts as business travel and is claimable. Your regular home-to-workplace journey is ordinary commuting and is never claimable — that's the most common mistake people make.
Meals: claimable when you're travelling for business and the meal is incidental to the journey — for example, lunch bought while you're away at a client site. Your everyday lunch at your normal place of work isn't. Keep it reasonable; HMRC expects modest, sensible costs.
Overnight stays: when you're away from home overnight on business, the hotel is deductible, and so is reasonable subsistence — an evening meal and breakfast, for example. So yes, the evening meal counts alongside the hotel, not just the room.
A few practical habits that will keep you safe:
1. Keep receipts for everything, plus a brief note of the business purpose of each trip.
2. Log date, destination, purpose and miles for every journey — which you're already doing.
3. If a trip mixes business and personal (say, staying an extra night for leisure), only claim the business part.
Stick to those lines and you'll have nothing to worry about if HMRC ever asks.
Anna
