Why do you need a tax consultant to check your travel expenses?
You or your designated line managers are best placed to check the accuracy and content of your employees’ travel expense reports. On request, we can relieve you of some of the work and take over the arithmetical check of the submitted statements and work for you at the interfaces to payment transactions, payroll accounting and financial accounting. This avoids double entries.
However, the most important thing is to check whether the submitted travel expense reports contain amounts that must be subject to income tax or social insurance. A layperson may not recognize this at first glance. Failure to do so usually leads to problems at the next tax audit, special wage tax audit or German Pension Insurance (DRV) audit. Managing directors should note that in certain cases they may be personally liable for non-payment of income tax or social security contributions (e.g. failure to file for insolvency).
Two examples of how quickly you can commit tax evasion
A) An employee was on a business trip within Germany for 15 hours in one day. He met an important customer at the Adlon in Berlin and, due to time constraints, treated himself to lunch alone for €60. There are now various options:
- Employers who pay the full amount of €60 to employees tax-free are committing tax evasion and evasion of social security contributions.
- The employer only reimburses the flat-rate wage tax amount of €14 and the employee must bear the difference to the actual costs themselves, i.e. these may not be paid out with the payroll.
- The employer reimburses a higher amount or the full amount. 14 € remains free of income tax. A further €14 can be deducted at the flat rate of 25%. The excess amount must be fully subject to the employee’s individual wage tax. Social insurance may be added.
B) An employee uses his private car for a business trip and charges 50 cents per kilometer driven due to the increased fuel costs. This has also been agreed with the employer. If the 50 cents per kilometer driven are reimbursed tax-free, this is tax evasion and evasion of social security contributions. It is correct that the employee must provide proof of the trip in a statement and that a maximum of 30 cents per kilometer may be reimbursed tax-free. If the employee is also to be reimbursed for the excess 20 cents, this must be subject to income tax and social security contributions.
Travel expenses are also subject to constant changes in regulations. Is this topic relevant to you? We explain here how we can support you.
