Business travel allowance - What should you know?

The business travel allowance are a series of extra-salary economic benefits of a compensatory nature, arising from the professional trips that an employee may make for a company.

When an amount is received under the concept of per diem allowance, The employee's board and lodging expenses are estimated and are necessary for the employee to be able to carry out his or her professional activity without problems outside the work center when he or she is on a business trip. In this regard, the human resources department has to correctly reflect the per diem allowance items in the payrolls and pay the same.

How the business travel allowance works

When should employee per diems be paid? Among the most usual concepts, we can find the expenses derived from transportation, lodging or food, which employees receive when they are on business trips or outside the company's facilities. These are considered additional per diems to the salary. This compensation is regulated by the General Workers' Statute, and has a series of conditions set out in the collective bargaining agreement. If this is not the case, the Human Resources Department must have an internal regulation that allows calculating the working allowances and establishing the amounts that correspond to each situation.

How are employee per diems paid?

The business travel allowances are included in the article 40.6 of the General Workers' Statute, and it mentions under what circumstances geographic mobility is referred to and how expenses arising from temporary relocations are to be compensated. These are extra salary adjustments which are intended to compensate for the expenses related to the maintenance and at accommodation of the employee during the temporary period associated with the business trip.

The per diem allowance, also known as per diems, can be paid directly or indirectly. In the second case, the company manages the flight and accommodation reservations or provides a meal voucher, or it can be paid in the following month's payroll in the part corresponding to the accruals, i.e. in the non-salary payments.

When payment is direct implies that the employee first pays all expenses, and then provides the company with proof of payment for meals, hotels and other expenses. Once this has been done, the company pays this amount.

Types of diets

Worker's allowances can be grouped into 3 main groups, which are part of the workers' rights. These 3 groups are the concepts most commonly used to talk about these compensations. They are the following:

• Dietexpenses: incurred when the employee needs to eat out. This expense is usually established in the Collective Bargaining Agreement, and usually ranges between 8 and 25 euros for half per diems and between 33 and 90 euros for full per diems.
• AccommodationIf the employee needs to stay in a hotel and spend the night away for work reasons, these are considered as lodging expenses that must be compensated by the company.
• Transportation or travelfuel expenses, airline or train tickets, cabs, tolls or parking expenses, or mileage or vehicle maintenance expenses are added to this compensation.

Per diem expenses may be exempt from social security contributions if the transportation expenses are public and are justified through an invoice and other allowances associated with travel, food and lodging expenses are provided for IRPF.