Calculation of daily allowances for business trips abroad in 2021

Daily allowances are one of the items of employee travel expenses subject to mandatory reimbursement. It is their payment and its execution that usually raises the most questions among business managers and accounting employees. In particular, difficulties arise with determining their size, withholding taxes, confirming expenses, etc. However, the current legislation gives clear answers to all these questions, knowledge of which will save the employer a lot of nerve cells.

2 Rules and procedure for issuing daily allowances in 2021

2.1 Procedure for calculating daily allowance in 2021

2.2 How many days before a business trip are daily allowances issued?

2.3 Are daily allowances paid for a one-day business trip?

2.4 How daily allowances are paid for weekends

3 Are daily allowances subject to taxes and insurance contributions?

Daily payment standards

The organization has the right to determine the amount of daily allowance when traveling abroad (Article 168 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). Such amounts must be fixed in a collective agreement or in an internal regulatory document.

Read more about drawing up an internal document regulating the rules related to business trips in our material.

However, for tax purposes it will be necessary to apply standards - upper limits on the amount of daily payments. Within these limits, amounts are not subject to personal income tax and insurance contributions (paragraph 12, paragraph 3, article 217 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, paragraph 2, article 422 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). For business trips abroad, such a limit is set at 2,500 rubles. If, for example, an enterprise has set the daily allowance at 5,000 rubles, then from the remaining 2,500 rubles. it will be necessary to withhold and transfer personal income tax and contributions.

Who sets the standards for reimbursement of travel expenses?

As mentioned above, the amount of daily travel expenses in 2018 is set by the enterprise independently. To do this, it is necessary to take into account the inflation rate compared to 2021, the category of personnel sent on the trip, etc. The company can approve the same daily allowance for all its employees or differentiate the payment by position. There are no legal restrictions.

Note! If we are talking about business trips of employees of government agencies, including extra-budgetary funds, local authorities, the procedure for paying daily allowances is determined by the legislation of the Government of the Russian Federation, as well as by executive bodies of the local or regional level (stat. 168 of the Labor Code).

In what document exactly does the enterprise need to record the accepted daily allowance amount? This may be a separate order from the manager, or a Regulation on business trips, or a call agreement. If frequent adjustments are expected, it is wiser to make clarifications by issuing a separate order from the manager. If the amount of daily allowance remains unchanged throughout the year, you can immediately indicate the exact amount in the LNA. And in order to justify the correctness of accounting, it is advisable to reflect the amounts in the employer’s accounting policy.

Features of calculating daily allowances for trips abroad

The standard formula for calculating daily payments looks like this:

Amount of daily allowance for the period = Number of days × Daily allowance standard

But in practice there are some peculiarities. So, if in 2021 a business trip falls on a Saturday, Sunday or holiday, then the daily allowance will have to be paid for these days, as well as double wages, but only if the employee will be performing work duties at that time. Such rules are fixed in Art. 153 Labor Code of the Russian Federation.

However, this formula is valid only for ruble payments. Can a company set standards in foreign currency? It turns out yes.

Thus, the enterprise must independently decide which currency it will use when setting limits and transferring daily allowances for trips abroad: Russian or foreign. For example, daily allowances are set in foreign currency. In this case, options are possible.

Payments to employees are made in Russian rubles and are equivalent to the currency limits fixed in the collective agreement or local act. The conversion rate into rubles is taken on the actual date of payment.
Payments are made in the currency of the visiting country. Then, to control ruble limits in accordance with the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, the exchange rate on the last date of the month of approval of the advance report is used (letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated March 21, 2016 No. 03-04-06/15509).

Read about the specifics of accounting for payment for hotel services on business trips abroad.

Documents to confirm daily allowance

Since 2015, when sending an employee on a business trip, a company may not use a travel certificate. In this case, to confirm the duration of the business trip and determine the total amount of daily allowance, housing rental documents, travel passes, and other documents that the employee submits after returning from the business trip are used. In their absence, the employee’s memo about the length of stay, containing a note by the receiving party, and transferred by him to the accounting department, can be taken into account.

On August 8, 2015, repeated 2015 adjustments were made to the procedure for sending an employee on a business trip, which came into force on August 8, 2015 by Government Decree No. 771 dated July 29, 2015. The changes affected the list of required documents for a business trip report.

This year, a provision began to apply to employees using their own transport (own or rented) to travel to and from their place of business travel. For them, confirmation of the length of stay on a business trip is a memo from this employee, indicating the dates of the business trip, as well as enclosing waybills, cash receipts, etc. It is drawn up by the employee in any form and submitted along with other documents to the accounting department.

Start and end days of the business trip

When calculating daily allowances for trips abroad, special attention should be paid to the number of business days. In 2021, this depends on the days the employee actually spent outside Russia.

According to paragraphs. 17 and 18 of the Regulations, approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated October 13, 2008 No. 749, the day of crossing the border when going on a business trip is considered according to the foreign tariff, and the day of arrival - according to the domestic tariff.

What are the rules for traveling abroad?

The Russian government has approved Resolution No. 812, which determines daily allowance standards for trips to foreign countries. It is mandatory for all organizations and institutions, the source of financing expenses in which the budget of the country or municipalities is.

This defines per diem rates expressed in US dollars for each foreign host country for one day.

Let's consider the main directions of business trips abroad:

Foreign country - place of business trip	Daily allowance expressed in US dollars
Great Britain	69
Germany	65
China	67
Türkiye	64
USA	72

Attention! In addition, this act also establishes allowances to the standards for certain categories of workers sent on foreign trips. Commercial companies can use the standards of this Resolution, or apply their own standards developed on its basis.

Download daily allowance rates for business trips abroad (Appendix No. 1) in Word format.

An example of calculating daily allowance for a business trip abroad

Let's consider an example when an organization establishes and pays daily allowances for business trips abroad in rubles.

In March 2021, the company sent three employees on a business trip to Italy. Sidorov S.S. was on a trip from March 6 to March 13. He performed work duties only on weekdays, and did not go to work on weekends and holidays - from March 8 to March 11, 2021.

Attention! additional expenses associated with living outside the place of residence (per diems) are reimbursed to the employee for each day he is on a business trip, including weekends and non-working holidays, as well as for days on the road. This is directly stated in paragraph 11 of the Regulations on Business Travel (approved by Government Resolution No. 749 of October 13, 2008). Therefore, despite the fact that, while on a business trip, the employee rested on a weekend or holiday, he is equally paid daily allowance for that day .

Two other employees (Petrov P.P. and Ivanov I.I.) were sent on a work trip from March 26 to 30.

In accordance with local regulations, the company has approved standards for the payment of daily allowances for trips abroad in the amount of 2,500 rubles. for Sidorov and Petrov and 3000 rubles. - for Ivanov. The daily allowance limit in Russia for everyone is 1000 rubles.

The calculation of the daily allowance for a trip to Italy will be:

For Sidorov: March 6 is the day of crossing the border, March 7 is a working day, March 8–11 is weekends and holidays, March 12 is a working day, March 13 is the day of crossing the border in the Russian Federation. Thus, the payment amount will be:

2,500 rub. × 7 days + 1000 rub. × 1 day = 18,500 rub.

For Petrov: all working days, from March 26 to 29 at a rate of 2500 rubles. and 1 day to cross the border. It turns out:

2,500 rub. × 3 days + 1000 rub. = 8,500 rub.

for Ivanov: from March 26 to March 29 at a rate of 3,000 rubles. and 1 day to cross the border. It turns out:

3,000 rub. × 3 days + 1000 rub. = 10,000 rub.

Exceeding the limits on which taxes will need to be paid will be: according to Sidorov and Petrov - 300 rubles. for each (excess in the Russian Federation: 1000 - 700 rubles), and for Ivanov 1,800 rubles. (excess of the norm for a foreign trip: 1,500 rubles (3,000 – 2,500) × 3 days + excess in the Russian Federation 300 rubles).

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.”

Results

Despite the apparent complexity of calculating daily allowances for business trips abroad, usually accountants quickly get the hang of it and make virtually no mistakes.
The main thing is to correctly fix the required payment rates, correctly calculate the amounts to be issued and accurately maintain documentation. In this case, the tax authorities will have nothing to complain about. You can find more complete information on the topic in ConsultantPlus. Free trial access to the system for 2 days.

Changes by daily allowance

For several years now, regulatory authorities have been trying to get away from per diem allowances, but authorities still retain these payments as part of travel expenses.

The procedure for calculating daily allowances, as well as the method for determining the number of days for which these amounts are due to be paid, have not changed. As well as the procedure for processing business trips for employees.

Per diems are the monetary equivalent of additional expenses incurred by the employee, which he incurs in accordance with the assignment received from management. They are normalized.

Each enterprise must approve in its internal regulations the daily allowance standards that are established for each day of a business trip. These amounts must be given to the employee by order of the employer before the start of the trip.

An innovation in this area will be the introduction of a resort tax in Russia from May 1, 2018. When sending an employee on a trip to certain regions, the daily allowance for business trips in 2021 should be increased by its amount.

Business trip abroad: registration

The package of documents for foreign business trips does not differ from those compiled for trips within the country.

To send an employee on a business trip, the following documents are drawn up:

A memo addressed to the manager with a request to send the employee on a trip, indicating the place and time. This is not a mandatory document; in some organizations, the decision on a business trip can be made by verbal order of the manager. Compiled in free form.
An order to be sent on a business trip is issued in a unified form T-9 or T-9a. The order does not make a note that this is a business trip abroad, this is already understandable, since the order form provides a deadline for indicating exactly where the employee is going.
Advance report - prepared after the employee returns from the trip.

Note! At the moment, a travel certificate and official assignment are not mandatory documents when sent on a business trip.

Taxation

For tax accounting, a strict daily allowance amount is adopted:

700 rubles - if traveling within the country;
2500 rubles - if the employee is sent to another state.

If daily allowances were paid within the specified amounts, then they should not be shown in any declarations, and taxes should not be charged on them. However, when daily allowances were paid in larger quantities, personal income tax must be charged on the excess.

This step is performed on the last day of the month in which the employee submitted the report, and the amount of tax is deducted from the accrued salary. The amount of a certain tax must also be shown in reports 2-NDFL and 6-NDFL.

In addition, starting from 2021, contributions to social funds must also be calculated based on the amount of excess, with the exception of injuries. The accountant must determine the amount of contributions at the end of the month of filing the advance report for this trip, and the excess amounts are included in the general base for determining contributions.

Attention! There is no obligation to take into account daily allowance limits when determining income tax. The organization includes them in the database in accordance with the limits approved by internal local regulations. Daily allowances are taken into account on the same day when the employee submitted the advance report.

Salary issues

According to the general rule, during the period of performance of an official assignment, full-time employees of the enterprise retain their average earnings. When calculating wages for the period of departure, the periods in which social benefits were accrued and other time during which the specialist was actually absent from work are excluded from the payments taken into account. The calculation algorithm approved by the legislator excludes from the calculation of average earnings days in which duties were not actually performed. Most often, bonuses are excluded to compensate for absence due to business needs; such issues are discussed with the employer individually. For cases where the business traveler has not worked a full year at the time of departure, all calculations are based on data on the actual time worked.

Business trip 2018

Recalculations upon departure of employees: additional payments

In practice, there are often cases when the amount of average monthly earnings is much less than the actual salary. This happens when an employee moves up a job. To pre-empt an unfair situation, employers can use a hybrid pay scheme. In this case, the employee will not be infringed on his rights. So, knowing how a business trip is paid in 2021, the employee will not have any complaints. When performing a job assignment in a new capacity (for example, as a deputy head of a department), a person will be motivated by fair pay.

Application of night and overtime standards

The involvement of enterprise employees in performing duties outside the work schedule is permitted with their consent. According to the norms of the Labor Code, such employees are entitled to double payment after the first two hours. the period from 10 to 12 pm must be calculated at time and a half tariff. At the same time, the legislation indicates the possibility of providing additional rest time for such periods.

The same rules apply to business trips. Thus, when performing a job assignment, the manager’s tasks are expected to be carried out within as short a time as possible. Since it is almost impossible to record night and overtime hours outside the office, these issues are discussed with the head of the department. In the timesheet, it will be possible to enter such hours according to the general rules under the letter “K”.

What if an employee is on duty on holidays and weekends?

Often, when paying for business trips in 2021, the question arises about payment for the period of being away from the workplace during the non-working period. Similarly, with the consent of the employee, it is allowed to attract a departing employee during such periods with the payment of appropriate compensation. There are two options for motivation:

Increased wages. This may be double or higher tariff;
For work on a business trip on weekends as well as holidays, regular payment may be made and additional rest time may be provided.

*The choice of payment option is at the discretion of the employee. Clarification of motivation is carried out through a written statement.

Remuneration for seconded shift workers and piece workers

These categories of employees are calculated by the accounting department based on the average salaries received at their main place of work. If it is necessary to pay wages to shift workers during a business trip, they rely on the current workers’ schedules. If the performance of official duties falls outside of normal working hours, compensation will need to be paid in accordance with night-time or weekend standards.

Procedure for paying daily allowances in 2019

Daily allowances for business trips in 2021 must be paid based on the number of days the employee will be traveling. This number is determined based on the drawn up order.

The calculated daily allowance is issued to the employee in cash or by non-cash transfer to a salary card in advance in the full amount, one day before departure for the trip.

Daily allowances in Russia in 2021 must be paid in rubles; they are issued:

For each day, which employee performs a task at the place of business trip, including holidays and weekends. It does not matter whether he was completely busy on such a day or only for a few hours.
For every day that the employee spent on the road, including days of departure and return, as well as days of downtime against his will.

When traveling abroad, it is necessary to distinguish between the days when the employee was in Russia and the days in another country. In the first case, he counts on daily allowance in rubles, in the second - in the currency of the country where he is going on a mission. Also in the mentioned situation, the rule applies - the day of departure should be taken as the day of being in another country, and the day of arrival - as the day of being in Russia.

The organization may not pay the employee daily allowances for business trips in 2021 in foreign currency, but provide an equivalent amount in rubles. In this situation, upon arrival at the destination, he will need to contact a bank or exchange office and independently purchase currency. This transaction must be confirmed by a receipt, which indicates the date of the transaction and the exchange rate.