Business travel allowance: What should you know?

Las Dietary allowances for business trips are a series of compensatory extra-wage economic perceptions, which arise through the professional trips that a worker can make for a company.

When an amount is perceived within the concept of work diets, It is estimated that the employee's living and lodging expenses are necessary for him to carry out his professional activity without problems outside the workplace when he is on a professional trip. In this regard, the human resources department must correctly reflect the concepts of working allowances in the payroll and pay them.

How work travel diets work

When do work allowances have to be paid? Among the most common concepts, we can find the expenses derived from transportation, accommodation or food, which employees receive when they are on a professional trip or outside the company's premises. These are considered diets in addition to the salary. This compensation is regulated by the General Workers' Statute, and has a series of conditions set out in the collective agreement. If this is not the case, the Human Resources department must have internal regulations that allow the calculation of working diets and establishing the amounts that correspond to each situation.

How are workers' diets paid for?

Dietary allowances for business trips are included in the Article 40.6 of the General Workers' Statute, and this one mentions under what circumstances geographical mobility is spoken of and how the expenses derived from temporary travel should be compensated. These are extra wage adjustments that have the objective of compensating for expenses related to the worker's living and accommodation during the temporary period associated with the professional trip.

Las work diets, also referred to as travel expenses, can be paid directly or indirectly. In the second case, the company manages reservations for flights, accommodations or is responsible for giving a restaurant check, or it can be credited to the following month's payroll in the part corresponding to the accruals, that is, in non-wage earnings.

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

Types of diets

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

• Dieta: caused when the employee needs to eat out. This expense is usually established in the Collective Agreement, and usually ranges from 8 to 25 euros for half diets and between 33 and 90 euros for full diets.
• Accomodation: if the employee needs to stay in a hotel and spend the night away for work reasons, these are considered as accommodation expenses that must be compensated by the company.
• Transportation or travel: in this compensation are added the costs of fuel, plane or train tickets, taxis, expenses for tolls or parking, or the costs of mileage or the maintenance of one's own vehicle.

Dietary expenses may be exempt from Social Security contributions if the transportation expenses are public and are justified by an invoice and other allowances associated with the travel, living and living expenses that are foreseen for personal income tax.

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