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Employee management of travel costs in Germany can be difficult for those who do not know the cultural and regulatory landscape Proper handling is required to avoid unexpected tax and social consequences, particularly in light of recent changes in tax legislation travel expenses in the note below, we present a few specific guidelines to ensure compliance with tax regulations and the ease in processing and payment.
To avoid any confusion regarding taxability of benefits, it is good to treat all invoices, including those for travel and hotel suppliers to the business address of the company, rather than the address of an employee Why responsible for income verification offices could allege the company repaid private bills of the employee, which creates a taxable benefit to the employee.
The use of company issued corporate credit cards could help alleviate confusion on this issue as long as the cards issued by companies to the German office addressed to the head office Note that if business cards for purchases business trips are the norm in the United States, they are not as common in Europe cash withdrawals there is widespread in companies that do not issue business cards to all employees who travel and do not use automated management fees.
In particular, if the bills exceed 00 150, they must state the full name of the employer and address and VAT amounts for parking, taxi, train, local flights, etc.
Forward all original backup documents for travel expenses to the local address of the company in Germany for storage by German law, these documents must be physically located in Germany.
Meals per diem Under German tax law, an employee can not deduct the direct costs of meals while traveling, but only by diems for days traveling The daily allowance is calculated in accordance with the Income Tax Act tax Einkommensteuergesetz German income and per diem are regulated depending on the duration of the trip.
Rates - For 2014, the allocation for external business events, a day is 12 for a period of 8 to 24 hours; for companies that spans multiple days, 12 is allocated for each day of travel to and from the place of business, and 24 for the full business days 24 hours on the absences absences must be recorded in the forms travel by showing the hours of absence.
For travel abroad, there are now two different amounts of daily allowances The respective amounts for all foreign countries by the German Ministry of Finance here.
The long-term business travel Employers can pay per diem tax free to an employee for a maximum of three months This period of 3 months may be resumed after a break of at least four weeks.
New in 2014 - The daily allowance will be reduced to reflect the meals provided free of charge, or meals are provided as part of the reimbursable travel, accommodation and incidental costs a total of.
Will be deducted from the allowance per calendar day accordingly This means that the daily allowance is reduced to zero if the employee received breakfast employer-paid full board, lunch, dinner Note that the reductions described above are also necessary if the employee joins a company meal together with other business partners of clients or customers, sometimes called representation expenses if the costs are borne by the employer.
If a shift in employee chooses to stay with friends, reimbursement allowed by German law is 20 Any amount claimed above the permissible level of 20 will be taxable to the employee.
Entertainment costs, they are handled differently in Germany for a bill to be considered an expense of entertainment, a third party must be entertained this is not possible with colleagues or employees who belong to the same society Please take care these invoices must be filled in correctly following necessary details.
Mileage and fuel A German employer is permitted to pay 0, 30 kilometer tax free after being confirmed by a special list that reflects the distance because of the date and touring with a private car an amount exceeding that threshold is, ie taxable benefit considered taxable income to the employee and subject to tax on fuel salaries can be paid tax-free only if the employee uses a company car or car where contract is concluded with the employer an employee can not be reimbursed for the fuel private cars, but may charge normal rate of km 0, 30 per kilometer in other words, fuel reimbursements for private cars must be covered by a subsidy km confirmed as above.
If the phone company provided addressed a mobile phone plan business, all the expenses of standard mobile phone plan should include the company name This benefit is not taxable to the employee as the company is the owner of the mobile phone and the invoice to the company in the country in all other cases, payroll taxes must be paid for redemption and the company may deduct the expenses t input VAT in other words, its problem to repay the telephone or Internet costs to employees if costs were billed them for a telecommunications contract signed by the employee Like most employees don t have separate bills for Internet, are packages that also include telephone charges, it is laborious to sort out what part of the phone bill is refundable and is a taxable proposed solution of es German tax rules is a refund of 20 Internet fee, without proof, but a ceiling of 20.
Please note that this paper addresses the majority of expenses, it is not comprehensive, so you should engage consultative advice on your situation.
Germany Managing expenditure on travel, Germany, employee, travel, fees.