November 2, 2016
Any company at some point faces a situation where it is necessary to send employees on the road and pay the daily allowance. Even if it seems simple in appearance, it is important to consider the legal regulations in order to proceed correctly and legally with regard to the taxes to be paid to the state.

Diurna is an amount received by employees during delegation and secondment to another locality, in the country and abroad, in the interest of the service. This is a right granted to any employee employed under an employment contract. The Labour Code stipulates that the employee sent to a delegation in the interest of the service, benefits according to the law and the collective labour contract from the payment of transport and accommodation expenses, as well as the payment of a delegation allowance. The value of the daily allowance is determined by the value threshold of 42.5 lei, i.e. 2.5 times the value for public institutions – 17 lei/ day.

If the daily allowance is less than 42.5 lei, then the amount of the expense is fully deductible, and if it exceeds 42.5 lei, the difference in value is taxed at the employee level. All salary contributions are calculated at this amount: income tax, employee and employer CASS, employee CAS and employer.

To receive the daily allowance, the employee must travel at least 5 km outside the locality where the permanent place of work is located, and the period of delegation must be at least 12 hours. As a duration, the delegation may be arranged for a maximum period of 60 calendar days during a year of days and may be extended for successive periods of up to 60 days on one condition, namely, the employer must have the employee’s consent. If an employee is delegated for a period of time of more than 120 days, the daily allowance received in the period exceeding 120 days will be considered by ANAF as a salary payment and will be taxed as such.

According to HG no. 23/2015, no meal vouchers will be granted for the period during which the employee is in delegation or secondment and receives daily allowance for delegation. The daily allowance is not justified by the employee, it is used for food and transport in the locality.

The daily allowance and its tax treatment regime has a number of specificities for which you need advice from professionals. Therefore, for any situation related to the travel day we are open to talk