Business trip legislation in Europe | Series – part 3: Romania

Duration of a business trip:

The number of calendar days during which a person is on a business trip is calculated from the day and time of departure to the day and time of the return. For one day of the business trip, it is considered every 24 hours of the duration of the business trip.

Vehicles used for business trips:

Expenses related to vehicles that are used exclusively for economic activity are fully admissible, but the company has the obligation to draw up a log of kilometres driven, in which it will justify that the car was used only for the purposes of economic activity. At the beginning of each trip, the employee must enter in the mileage report the number of kilometres travelled, which is displayed on the dashboard of the car, and which represents the number of kilometres driven by the vehicle immediately before this trip. At the end of each trip, the employee should once again enter the number of kilometres driven in the mileage report. The difference between these two numbers represents the number of kilometres the car travelled during the trip. In order to justify the number of kilometres driven for each trip, it is necessary for the employee to submit fuel receipts for the work trip. Using the average fuel consumption (litre per km, information in the vehicle’s technical book), it is possible to calculate the approximate number of litres consumed by the car during driving and determine the value of fuel expenses. The price of fuel for the calculation is the average price based on the documents submitted by the employees. If the employee presents proof of purchase of fuel from abroad with an amount in foreign currency, the price is calculated at the rate of the National Bank of Romania valid on the date of receipt of the fuel.

Meals by a domestic business trip:

During a domestic business trip, the employee is entitled to daily per diems that cover food and/or other unforeseen expenses. In that case, the employee should not submit additional documents for meals during the business trip. Both diem and food are claimed as part of the business trip, the cumulative amount is determined and what exceeds the deductible limit is subject to income tax from wages and social contributions.

The deductible limit is set at RON 50/day-, and/or in the limit of 3 base  salaries corresponding to the job held by the Romanian Tax Code. The ceiling of 3 base salaries corresponding to the post occupied is calculated by dividing the 3 salaries by the number of working days in the month in question and multiplying the result by the number of days during the period of secondment to another place in the country.

If business trips on the territory of Romania last several calendar days, the number of days of the business trip is calculated from the date and time of departure to the date and time of return to the location where the employee has a permanent residence or place of work. The resulting period is then divided into 24 hours, and each resulting interval represents 1 day of business travel. A person seconded to a locality more than 5 km from the locality where he or she has his or her permanent place of work shall receive a secondment allowance. The secondment allowance is granted only if the duration of the secondment is at least 12 hours.

Meals by a foreign business trip:

Foreign per diems are granted in the amount determined for each country in which the trip takes place, considering the values ​​established by law and in this situation the Government’s decision must be verified for Romanian personnel sent abroad for temporary assignments.  In most countries of the European Union, the same daily allowance is provided: 35 euro/day, with the possibility of a fiscal maximum of 87.5 euro/day and within the limit of 3 base salaries corresponding to the job held. The ceiling of 3 base salaries corresponding to the post occupied is calculated by dividing the 3 salaries by the number of working days in the month in question and multiplying the result by the number of days of the period of secondment abroad.

The period for which the foreign daily allowance is granted for foreign delegations is determined according to the means of transport used by the employee, considering

• the moment of take-off of the plane when going abroad and the moment of landing of the plane after arriving in the country and from the airports that form the crossings of the state border of Romania;
• the moment of crossing by train or car through border crossings or the Romanian state, both when going abroad and when returning to the country.

For external journeys, 50% of the value of the daily diet is granted for periods not exceeding 12 hours and 100% for periods exceeding 12 hours.

Reduction of a meal allowance:

According to Romanian law, if the employer grants and bears all the expenses incurred for business trips, then the employee is not granted a delegation allowance, but this aspect, in our opinion, must be stipulated in the individual employment contract and in the internal regulations and/or other internal procedures of the employer and made known to the employee.

In order to avoid any interpretation to the contrary, our recommendation is that private employers, when granting the delegation allowance, should take into account the provisions of the government decisions establishing the conditions for granting the daily allowance for staff in public institutions.

Advances for compensations:

The employer can provide the employee with a cash advance, based on which it is necessary to create a Statement of Expenses. The Statement of Expenses must outline the specific costs covered by the advance and be supported by relevant documentation and must include all expenses incurred, including daily subsistence allowance, on return from the trip. If the amount of expenses plus per diem is less than the advance granted then the employee will receive the difference, and if the ratio is reversed, the employee will have to repay the excess.

Travel reimbursements:

For example, the employer must reimburse the following items:

• Travel expenses (travel ticket, plane ticket, taxi, public transport ticket);
• Accommodation expenses;
• Incidental expenses (phone fee, fax fee, Internet fee, parking fee, highway fee).

If an employee goes on vacation following a business trip and returns to the workplace, the cost of return transportation is not covered and will not be reimbursed.

Business trip management in TULIP is separated to 2 parts:

• business trip request (plan)
• settlement

If the employer agrees with the employee on a work trip, the employee must enter the work trip plan in TULIP. The plan allows TULIP to state:

• place of departure for the work trip,
• place of work (country, city, company),
• duration of the business trip,
• type of transport,
• place of end of the business trip,
• the reason for the business trip,
• planned expenses,
• notes,
• attachments, or other necessary information.

BT request can be submitted by HR, the employee’s supervisor or another authorized person. In this section, the employee has the option to request a deposit in RON or a foreign currency. The duration for which the employee entered the plan is also automatically displayed in his attendance for the purposes of payroll processing.

After the plan has been approved by the competent persons and after the employee’s return from the business trip, the employee is obliged to fill out the business trip statement. The work trip statement shows all the information that the employee entered in his plan with the possibility of editing this data according to reality.

The employee has 5 sections at his disposal :

• crossing borders,
• food,
• expenses,
• attachments,
• compensation for the use of a private vehicle.

TULIP automatically calculates meal reimbursements based on the time zone and border crossing, which the employee is required to indicate in the Border Crossing and Meals sections. If the employee passes through several countries, he/she has the option to fill in all the countries of transit during the work trip and the exact time of the plane’s departure, or border crossing. The employee is also obliged to indicate the free meals provided by the employer. Based on this, TULIP automatically reduces the amount of the meal allowance for the given day. If the employee states that he/she was reimbursed for the free breakfast, the amount of the meal allowance will not be reduced.

The employee has the option to enter all travel expenses in the Expenses section, indicating the date of the expense, the type of expense, the amount of the expense, in the case of payment by card, the amount of the expense abroad in the domestic currency. Expenses paid by the employee with the company card are indicated in TULIP and the amount of these expenses is subsequently deducted from the total result of the statement. All conversions to the domestic currency are calculated automatically.

If the employee used a private vehicle, in TULIP he/she indicates the number of kilometres travelled, the type of private vehicle and the price from the receipt for the purchase of fuel. The employee has the option of specifying a larger number of prices from receipts for the purchase of fuel, then TULIP calculates the average price for the purchase of fuel and automatically recalculates the total compensation for the fuel consumed from this price.

The employee sees the result of the bill immediately after entering all the information in his/her bill and can change it until the bill is sent for approval and processing. All participants in the workflow have the opportunity to download the work trip form.

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