One-day business trip: reimbursement of expenses, personal income tax and insurance premiums

Procedure for paying daily allowances

Daily allowances are reimbursed to the employee for each day he is on a business trip, including weekends and holidays (clause 11 of Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of October 13, 2008 No. 749, hereinafter referred to as Decree No. 749).

See the material “What are daily expenses on a business trip?”

The actual duration of the business trip is confirmed by travel documents, and in case of their loss - by documents of residence. It is also often advisable to draw up a business trip memo. It will help confirm the period of stay on a business trip if for some reason it is impossible to present documents of residence. In this case, the host party must make notes on the dates of arrival and departure in the memo (clause 7 of Resolution No. 749).

When traveling to the place of performance of an official assignment in a car (personal or official), documents confirming the dates of travel are attached to the official note: waybills and/or route sheets, receipts and checks from gas stations, etc.

For more information about spending daily allowances, see the material “It is not required to confirm the employee’s spending of daily allowances .

A one-day business trip has its own peculiarities: if the business trip does not go beyond Russia, daily allowances are not paid, and for a business trip abroad, their amount will be 50% of their usual amount (paragraphs 11, 20 of Resolution No. 749). A one-day business trip has become a stumbling block in the issue of payment: judicial practice has the decision of the Supreme Court of Russia dated September 11, 2012 No. 4357/12, which states that this payment can be made, but with the caveat that this is compensation for other expenses of the employee. In case of illness of an employee during a business trip, according to paragraph 25 of Resolution No. 749, daily allowances are paid for all days of illness, even if it extended the duration of the business trip. This rule also applies if an employee is delayed on a business trip with the permission (or at the request) of management.

Business trip online

Options “Business trip online” provides a package of Internet traffic at a reduced cost in international roaming. Options are connected once and are triggered automatically upon use of the Mobile Internet service.

* Tariffing per 100 KB. Tariff zone 1 includes the countries: Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Tajikistan, Belarus, Liechtenstein, Egypt, Portugal, South Africa, Czech Republic, Great Britain, Spain, Germany, Greece, Romania, Ukraine, Austria, Turkey, Israel, Croatia, Ireland, Switzerland, Armenia, France, UAE, Italy. Tariff zone 2 includes the countries: Albania, Hungary, Denmark, Slovakia, the Netherlands, Montenegro, Poland, Bulgaria, Norway, Moldova, Sweden. Tariff zone 3 includes the countries: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Thailand, Uzbekistan, India, Slovenia, Georgia, Belgium, Dominican Republic, Mongolia, Luxembourg, Cyprus, Kyrgyzstan, Malta, Vietnam, China (including Hong Kong).

You can activate the option through the “Service Guide”/“Corporate Portal” web portal or by contacting the corporate client department.

• A daily subscription fee is charged only in case of actual use in the coverage area of ​​the tariff option during the corresponding day (from 00-00 to 24-00 Moscow time).
• It is possible to connect several line options together.
• The amount of traffic included in the subscription fee can be used until 24:00 Moscow time. In case of using data transfer services in excess of the specified volume until the end of the day, a fee will be charged in the amount indicated in the table.
• In case of use on trains in Russia, in the Home region, or in countries not included in the specified tariff zones, services are charged in accordance with the current tariffs.
• It is not possible to connect this line of tariff options together with tariff options that provide preferential terms for the Mobile Internet service when in international roaming

Daily allowance for business trips in 2021

By the way, the amount of daily allowance is not limited by law, in Art. 217 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation provides only their norms for the purposes of taxation of personal income tax and insurance contributions, which represent a non-taxable minimum. The daily allowance standards for business trips are 2021: for Russian business trips - 700 rubles, and for foreign ones - 2,500 rubles, they were also in effect in 2017. Amounts issued to an employee in accordance with corporate standards in excess of the limit are subject to personal income tax and insurance contributions (clause 2 of Article 422 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

How to pay insurance premiums on daily allowances, read the material “What are insurance premiums on daily allowances in 2018?”

• Calculation of daily allowances for foreign business trips is made according to the customs service marks in the foreign passport of the posted employee. As a general rule, the day of crossing the border to leave the Russian Federation is considered as a day abroad, the day of crossing the border to enter the Russian Federation is already considered a day in the Russian Federation (clause 18 of the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of October 13, 2008 No. 749). If daily allowances for a trip are issued in a foreign currency, for personal income tax purposes they are recalculated into rubles at the Bank of Russia exchange rate on the last day of the month in which the advance report was approved after the employee returns from a business trip or on the day of dismissal, if the employee is dismissed after returning from a business trip. But for the purposes of calculating insurance premiums from excess daily allowance amounts, the date of approval of the advance report is used (letter of the Ministry of Finance dated May 29, 2017 No. 03-15-06/32796).

Example

The commercial director of Smolensk Breweries LLC left Smolensk on a business trip on 03/01/2018. In the period from 03/02/2018 to 03/03/2018, he worked in Moscow. On March 4, 2018, I left by train for Prague. The train departed at 7:45 on 03/04/2018, crossed the Russian border at 3:01 on 03/05/2018, and arrived at its destination at 9:50 on 03/05/2018. The director returned by plane to Moscow on 03/09/2018 and arrived in Smolensk on 03/10/2018.

According to corporate standards, the directorate has established increased daily allowance rates: 1,000 rubles. for Russia, 50 euros for European countries.

According to the business trip schedule, the director was given:

• Rubles for 03/01/2018, 03/02/2018, 03/03/2018, 03/04/2018, 03/09/2018 and 03/10/2018 = 6 days. Total: 6,000 rub. per diem in Russia.
• Euro for 03/05/2018, 03/06/2018, 03/07/2018, 03/08/2018 = 4 days. Total: 200 euros.

The director submitted the advance report on March 13, 2018. The advance report was approved that same day.

The euro exchange rate set by the Bank of Russia was 69.7972 rubles as of 03/13/2018, 70.5618 rubles as of 03/31/2018.

Calculation of daily allowances for business trips accepted as expenses:

6,000 + 200 × 69.7972 = 19,959.44 rubles.

Standards:

700 × 6 + 2500 × 4 = 14200 rub.

The amount subject to personal income tax is: 6,000 + 200 × 70.5618 – 14,200 = 5,912.36 rubles.

The accountant of Smolensk Breweries LLC calculated insurance premiums in the amount of: 19,959.44 – 14,200 = 5,759.44 rubles.

• The Labor Code of the Russian Federation does not establish the employer’s obligation to pay the same daily allowance to all employees of the organization: they can be divided into categories, assigning a corresponding amount to each of them in the accounting policy. This is stated in the letter of the Ministry of Labor of Russia dated 02/14/2013 No. 14-2-291 and the letter of Rostrud dated 03/04/2013 No. 164-6-1.

Also, the amount of daily allowance for business trips in 2021 can be made dependent on several factors, for example, the cost of food and travel on passenger transport at the place of business trip or position held. The main thing is to consolidate changes in accounting policies and regulations on business trips.

• As has already become clear, daily allowances are exempt from personal income tax withholding within the limits specified in the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, that is, when daily allowances are paid in an amount greater than this norm, tax is charged on the excess amount. For personal income tax purposes, the date of receipt of income in the form of excess daily allowance is recognized as the last day of the month in which the advance report is approved (subclause 6, clause 1, article 223 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). In this case, the deduction should be made from the next salary payment to the employee, and the tax should be transferred to the budget no later than the next day after this payment (this is stated in clause 6 of Article 226 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).
• The Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation in a letter dated October 1, 2015 No. 03-04-06/56259 indicates that funds paid to an employee in exchange for daily allowances for one-day business trips are not subject to personal income tax in the amounts provided for in paragraph 3 of Art. 217 Tax Code of the Russian Federation.
• Tax accounting of daily allowances for income tax purposes does not imply standardization, that is, they are recognized in the amount established by the enterprise. Art. 272 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation states that travel expenses are recognized in accounting on the date of approval of the advance report: this rule also applies to daily allowances.
• Starting from 2021, daily allowances in excess of the norms established by clause 3 of Art. 217, insurance premiums are charged for VNIM, OPS and compulsory medical insurance (clause 2 of Article 422 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). The letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated March 16, 2017 No. 03-15-06/15230 clarifies that for daily allowances in foreign currency, conversion into rubles must be carried out at the official rate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation established on the date of accrual of daily allowances in favor of the employee.
• The day of calculating daily allowance for the purposes of calculating insurance premiums is the day of approval of the advance report (see letter of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated May 29, 2017 No. 03-15-06/32796). Contributions for injuries on daily allowances, both within and above the norms, are not accrued (clause 2 of Article 20.2 of Law No. 125-FZ, letter of the Federal Social Insurance Fund of the Russian Federation dated November 17, 2011 No. 14-03-11/08-13985).

About reflecting daily allowances in 6-personal income tax, read the article “How to correctly reflect daily allowances in excess of the norm in 6-personal income tax?”

Read more about the taxation of travel expenses in the material “Procedure for taxation of settlements with accountable persons.”

Insurance premiums

But here the situation is still much worse.
As we found out, confirming other expenses with receipts for food costs is not only useless, but even dangerous - you can get into conflict with the tax authorities.

On the other hand, expenses without documents are viewed negatively in extra-budgetary funds.

In letter No. 17-3/B-156 of the Russian Ministry of Labor dated 04/01/15, officials clearly separated “flies from cutlets.”

If there are documents confirming expenses, then these payments are recognized as reimbursement of documented expenses caused by the need to perform labor functions, and mandatory insurance premiums do not need to be charged.

In the absence of documentary evidence of the intended use of business trip-related payments made to employees during one-day business trips, their directly compensatory nature is lost and, accordingly, these amounts are subject to insurance contributions in the general manner.

This opinion can be opposed by the Resolutions of the Administrative Court of the West Siberian District dated 07/04/16 in case No. A67-6704/2015 and the Administrative Court of the Volga-Vyatka District dated 03/02/16 in case No. A82-7569/2015.

There, the judges believe that the disputed payments, based on their focus and economic content, can be recognized as reimbursement for other expenses associated with a business trip, made with the permission or knowledge of the employer, and therefore are not the employee’s income.

The funds paid by the organization to its employees when sending them on business trips for a period of one day represent compensation in the established amount of the employee’s expenses associated with the need to perform labor functions outside the place of permanent work, which means they are not subject to mandatory insurance contributions.

Results

Per diem as an expense item is under the close attention of tax authorities, since it affects the tax base for two taxes at once: income tax and personal income tax, and also, starting from 2021, for insurance premiums. That is why you should thoroughly follow all the rules for rationing and payment, so that during inspections you do not receive unexpected sanctions.

See also “What are the types of entries for accounting for travel expenses?”
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