British Airways provided hotel rooms to cabin crew near London Heathrow airport when doing short overnights as part of longer trips... and now the British govt wants the taxes, all 7 million dollars worth!

but these are London stays for flight attendants based in London. 

They could have just gone home. So the expense isn’t deductible.

The government says that the rooms were a taxable employment benefit, rather than a necessary business expense.

BA provided something of value by reason of employment. 

The travel subsistence exemption is only allowable if the employee could deduct the same cost if they were the ones paying. 

London Heathrow is their permanent workplace or base. 

Accommodation at or near a permanent workplace is not deductible business travel. 

Ordinary commuting and private living costs aren’t deductible.

His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs department treated the hotel stays as taxable. British Airways disputed that.

When British Airways scheduled back-to-back trips where they spent the night in London, BA paid for a layover hotel rather than treating the crew as simply off duty at home. This is important because flight attendants need minimum rest between flights, which amounts to time ‘behind the door’ and commutes eat into this.

https://viewfromthewing.com/british-airways-put-up-flight-attendants-in-london-hotels-now-the-u-k-demands-7-8-million-in-tax/