Readers’ forum: Buying a caravan for use as accommodation when working away

We have a client who is the director and main shareholder of a small engineering systems consultancy company – including the director it employs about six engineers who provide this service to their clients.

The provision of the company’s service will generally involve an engineer attending a client’s premises for perhaps up to a week a month possibly slightly less and as the clients are located all over the country this will generally involve the engineer staying at a hotel and the cost of that hotel will be a business expense following normal principles.

Our query concerns the director who is a keen caravaner and has asked what the tax implications would be if the company bought a caravan which when the director was working away from home at a client’s premises he would tow behind his car to a suitable...