Daily allowances for business travels abroad

26. October 2015 | Reading Time: 2 Min

The amendments to the Bylaw on Compensation of Expenses and Severance to the State Officials are in effect as of October 14th, 2015, setting forth the amount of daily allowance, the method of calculating the allowances and compensation of expenses to the state officials travelling on business within the country and abroad.

However, this Bylaw is applicable to the employees in private sector as well, in the part referring to business travels abroad, as follows:

  • A single amount of daily allowance for all business travels abroad of 15 EUR is given to the employees for every 24 hours spent abroad on a business travel. This amount represents a non-taxable amount of daily allowance for business travels abroad regardless of the traveling country;
  • In the General Act, the employer can determine amount of daily allowance that will be lower or higher than the amount set forth in this Bylaw, just as it was the case until now. It should, however, be noted that employer shall be obliged to calculate and pay 10% personal income tax on allowances paid over the 15 EUR amount.

The amendments to the Bylaw determine that daily allowances for business travels in the country is set to the amount of 150 dinars. Given the fact that this Bylaw is not applicable on employees in the private sector in the part relating to business travels in the country, this amendment will have no effect on the current practice. Namely, the employer shall determine the amount of daily allowances for business travels in the country by the General Act, and it should be noted that non-taxable amount of allowances for business travels in the country is determined by the Personal Income Tax Law and currently amounts to 2,168 dinars (while adjustment of this amount is done annually).

 

taxnewsletter_october2015_eng_1.pdf