Travel expenses are ... Definition, size and order of calculation

Sending an employee on a business trip is an assignment to perform a labor function outside the permanent place of work (location of the employing organization). Departure from the area of ​​residence involves the employee incurring additional costs (moving, arranging at a new location, meals, consumer services, etc.). Paying money to an employee to carry out manager’s instructions remotely is travel expenses.

Types of cash payments to employees on a business trip

Travel expenses are the average salary of an employee and other compensation payments. Articles 167, 168 of the Labor Code reflect the legal framework for calculating statutory amounts for an employee sent to work in another region.

All expenses of an employed citizen on a business trip are divided into four groups:

• the cost of moving to and from your destination;
• Amounts required by the employee for the rental of housing;
• food costs and other needs;
• other expenses incurred by the employee as directed by the employer or as agreed with him.

Payments made to the employee on the basis of these expense items are divided into three types:

1. The salary.
2. Per diem.
3. Compensation of other necessary expenses, documented.

The amount of travel expenses, the issues of their calculation and payment are regulated by the Regulation on business trips, fixed in Resolution No. 749, issued by the Russian Government on October 13, 2008.

In addition to this act, enterprises have the right to create internal regulatory legal acts, which will regulate in detail legal relations in the relevant field of work of a legal entity taking into account the specifics of its activities.

When calculating travel expenses (sample is given below), the following points are taken into account:

• The procedure for calculating compensation payments does not depend on the length of time an employee is on a business trip.
• According to the norms of the Decree of the State Committee for Labor of the Soviet Union No. 62 of April 7, 1988, the period of secondment is limited to forty days. At the same time, there are no restrictions on the duration of work outside the workplace in the Labor Code.

Grounds and procedure for payment of advance payment for business trip

Some employers attribute to payments to employees sent to work in another region, additional travel expenses - this is an advance. The accrual of these amounts is due to the fact that the employee’s own funds may not be enough for expenses on a working trip.

The total amount of payments due to the employee (payment of labor time) is calculated and issued at the end of the calendar month (billing period) along with other amounts earned. However, an advance payment can be issued to the employee prior to departure. It includes daily and estimated expenses for accommodation and travel.

Advance payments can be made in cash (from the organization’s cash desk) or by transferring a plastic card to a bank account (depending on how the employee receives his salary).

The amount of travel expenses of the advance type is determined on the basis of documents, which are the basis for calculating the established amount for accounting.

The papers, on the basis of which the advance is issued to the employee, is a statement signed by the employee and an order. The act of sending on a business trip is drawn up by the employer in the form of T-9 (if several employees are sent at once, the T-9a form is used). The order shall contain data on the employee being sent, destination, purpose of the trip, its duration and source of payment.

Until 2016, the list of mandatory documents also included a travel certificate. Currently, this paper has been canceled, and travel documents and information from the memo have become confirming facts of the employee’s stay at the destination.

Payment of business trip days

The amount of daily travel expenses and other relevant payments is determined based on the basic rule of accounting for working hours. It consists in the fact that an employed employee is paid for work outside the region of the place of work if he is officially sent there by the company and carries out labor activities according to the schedule approved by the enterprise.

An important element of travel expenses is salary. It is retained by the employee throughout the entire period of the employee's departure and the entire time spent on the journey.

If the specific nature of work involves work on weekends and holidays, this period is paid in double amount (according to the norms of article 153 of the Labor Code). At the initiative of the employee, payment can be replaced by additional days of rest with payment in a single amount.

Often, in practice, situations arise in which the proper completion of a task on a business trip requires the employee to go to the place of residence on his day off or return home. In such cases, under article 106 of the Labor Code, these days are paid as weekends (holidays).

The issue of determining the amount of daily travel expenses and other compensation payments on days on the road has not yet been resolved. The problem is that some employees spend three hours on the road, while others spend ten hours of their time.

The issue is often resolved by issuing a local regulatory legal act at the enterprise, which states that the payment of travel expenses on the day of travel is paid according to the number of hours spent on the trip.

Determination of average salary as a calculated value for payment of travel expenses

Travel expenses are reimbursed based on the calculation of the average wage. This calculation is not always correct. In some cases, payments that are calculated based on the size of the salary for the position are more than average.

To resolve this issue, local acts of enterprises provide additional accruals to travel payments, which allow you to level the labor income of employees at workplaces and field.

Calculation of average wages is based on Government Decree No. 922 of December 24, 2007. According to the document’s standards, average wage payments for a certain period are calculated as follows: daily average earnings for the previous twelve months are multiplied by the number of days (or hours with average hourly earnings).

Travel payout calculation example

The following situation can serve as an example of calculating travel payments. The engineer was employed abroad for a week (from the tenth to the sixteenth of June).

On June 12 (Day of Russia), the worker worked, as in another country this day is not considered a day off. However, the employee did not work on June 15 due to the fact that this day was a day off in the country in which he was located. According to the norms of the Decree, the employee retained the average wage for this day.

Thus, travel expenses abroad should be paid to him as follows: the tenth-eleventh, thirteenth-sixteenth (six days) are paid on average. June twelfth in this case is paid at a double rate.

To calculate the amount that should be issued for travel expenses to the employee, the following calculations are carried out:

• total income for June-May, excluding one-time type bonuses, holidays and sick leave - 350,000 rubles;
• the number of days worked upon in the billing period - 230;
• employee salary - 29,000 rubles;
• the number of days of labor on the production calendar - 22.

The average daily earnings are calculated as follows: 350,000 rubles / 230 days = 1,522 rubles.

The daily salary is calculated as follows: 29 000 rubles / 21 days = 1 381 rubles.

The salary for the business trip period is calculated as follows: (1,522 rubles × 4 days) + (1,381 rubles × 2 × 1 day) = 8,850 rubles.

The per diem calculation procedure

Traveling per diem expenses in Russia are allocated for food, accommodation and other inherent needs of an employee who is located in another region or abroad to resolve work issues.

The per diem payment procedure is determined in accordance with the established rules:

1. Per diem is calculated daily, regardless of whether the specified day is a working day, day off, holiday or a day on the road.
2. If the trip is one-day in nature within the Russian territory (or the employee returns every day after work to his region), per diem is not paid to him. If, under the same conditions, an employee travels abroad, he is charged half the daily subsistence allowance.
3. The amount of per diem is determined by the local regulatory legal acts of the enterprise.
4. Payment of established amounts in a foreign territory from the moment the state border is crossed is made in the currency of that state.
5. The day of departure outside the country is paid according to the norms of a foreign business trip, and the day of arrival is paid according to Russian standards.
   

The minimum and maximum amount of daily travel expenses for Russia is not fixed by law. Approximate limits are set by the provisions of the Tax Code. Personal income tax is not withheld from per diem when the amount does not exceed:

• seven hundred rubles a day - for twenty-four hours of a business trip within the country;
• two and a half thousand - per day of stay in a foreign trip.

Recalculation of money paid is made at the rate set on the day the money was received.

An employee is not entitled to refuse to pay a per diem, as these charges are a financial guarantee, which is enshrined in labor law as a right of a working citizen.

Paying employee expenses during a business trip

Elements of travel expenses:

• accounts for necessary expenses in the framework of the performance of a labor function;
• payment for accommodation;
• Travel expenses to and from your destination.

This list is enshrined in article 168 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. According to the norms of the twenty-third paragraph of Decree No. 749, the employer pays the following types of expenses for the employee:

1. The cost of obtaining a passport, visa and other documents for traveling outside of Russia.
2. Charges for the transit of vehicles and the right to leave.
3. The costs of compulsory medical insurance.
4. Mandatory airport and consular fees.
5. Other documents required for traveling abroad.

All types of reimbursable expenses are paid only if they have documentary evidence. Payment of additional costs is allowed when they are indicated in the local regulatory legal acts of the enterprise.

For example, a local business travel provision may include reimbursement of travel expenses or rental housing. The document should reflect the limits of the established amounts. If an employee spends more on housing or transport, only the amount indicated in the company acts is payable. The remaining costs are borne by the employee.

Accounting travel expenses may be carried out in relation to costs that are not documented by the employee. Their payment is made if it is fixed by the relevant regulatory legal acts of the enterprise. Otherwise, excess costs are reimbursed by agreement with the manager or remain the personal expenses of the employee.

Does the employee need to report on travel expenses?

All specified categories of expenses incurred by the employee and which are reimbursed by the employer require mandatory written confirmation. For these purposes, a document has been developed - an advance report.

The paper must be drawn up within three days (workers) from the moment of return from the trip. Documents confirming the expenses incurred by the seconded employee are attached to it. These include the following papers:

• for travel costs - printouts of electronic tickets, travel documents, boarding passes, checks for taxis, receipts from gas stations (if the employee used his personal car), etc .;
• for the costs of renting premises for living - KKT checks, hotel bills, house (room, apartment) rental agreements, agreements with a real estate agency, receipts for a cash receipt order, etc .;
• for other costs - a list of phone calls, receipts for payment for communication services, baggage receipts (if things were stored in a special place), etc.

Business trip taxation

Withholding taxes and accrual of insurance contributions are as follows:

1. When working on a business trip, tax is withheld in a general manner, insurance payments are accrued according to standards.
2. Taxes are withheld from daily allowances when the limit of expenses established by the third paragraph of Article 217 of the Tax Code is exceeded (seven hundred rubles for travel within the country, two and a half thousand for business trips to other states), insurance payments are not charged.
3. Taxes are not deducted from expenses related to a working trip for the items of the closed list from the considered article of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation (for travel to and from destination, fees of a commission type, commissions for (services) the operation of airports, travel expenses to the place of landing (transfers) ), the cost of transporting personal belongings (baggage), the cost of renting a room for living, the cost of communication services, the cost of applying for a foreign passport, visa fees, the cost of exchanging cash in Russian money or a check for foreign currency Utah in banking organizations. insurance payments is calculated on the same charges.

If some expenses are not documented, travel expenses are paid according to the norms of local regulatory acts, withholding taxes and the calculation of insurance premiums are carried out on a common basis.

Reflection of travel expenses in accounting documents

Posting travel expenses in documents of the accounting type is as follows.

Reimbursement of expenses to an employee on a business trip is a multifaceted issue. This is due to the fact that there can be a lot of expense items when you are on a business trip: they depend on the purpose of the business trip and the characteristics of the enterprise. In this regard, each organization sending employees to other regions and countries to perform a labor function must first create local legal acts regulating all aspects of sending employees on business trips, accrual and payment of money for a trip, reimbursement of expenses, etc.