When is a trip for work considered a business trip, and when is it just a business trip? The answer to the question is simple and clearly stated in the legislation. Let’s figure it out together.
Distinctive features of the business trip
A business trip is a trip by an employee by order of the employer for a certain period of time to carry out an official assignment outside the place of permanent work. This definition is given in Article 166 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. Government Decree No. 749 dated October 13, 2008 clarifies that a trip on official business to a representative office or branch of a company where the employee does not work permanently is also considered a business trip.
Here are three important points that determine a business trip:
- Mission assignment. An employee going on a business trip must be given a clear work task.
- A specific deadline. We discussed the timing of business trips in a separate article. For now, we note that modern Russian legislation does not stipulate clear terms for business trips. In practice, the minimum period is 24 hours. The employer sets the maximum period independently.
- Travel to a place other than the place of permanent work. By law, even a trip to an office located in another area of the city can be considered a business trip.
Let’s look at two similar situations.
Situation #1. The company sends a manager from Moscow to the office in St. Petersburg for a week to conduct a promotion for customers. During this week, he organizes all the conditions, holds the competition, sums up its results and returns to Moscow. By law, this trip is a business trip.
Situation #2. The company manager moves to live in Sochi for three summer months and agrees with the management that he will work from the local office. He comes to work at the same hours as in Moscow and performs his main work duties. According to the law, this is not a business trip. The tax authority will consider that the employee has temporarily changed his workplace to another branch, and his payment cannot be calculated as travel allowance.
Who can go on business trips
A business trip is a trip for employees whose permanent work takes place on the road or has a traveling nature. These are, for example, couriers, forwarders, train conductors, drivers. Business trips should not be paid for like business trips. Business trips are mentioned in Government Resolution No. 749.
dated 10/13/2008
Each employer determines the list of professions and positions of traveling workers independently, so you can include any specialties in it. The main thing is that, due to the nature of his activity, the employee needs to move around the area, and the condition regarding the traveling nature of the work is enshrined in the employment contract.
For example, if you send a full-time courier from Moscow to an office in St. Petersburg to deliver important documents, he does not go on a business trip, but fulfills his job duties as specified in the contract. If a manager carries the same documents from Moscow to St. Petersburg, then such a trip must be registered as a business trip. By the way, if an employee is driving his own car, read our article “Business trip by personal car.”
