Foreign Travel: Rules/Rates/Receipts

Reimbursable expenses:  Transportation-Airfare can be direct billed (see Foreign Travel: Approvals/Airfare/Pre-planning memo). Ground transportation is also covered.  Meals –You are eligible for breakfast, lunch and dinner on the day the trip begins if you leave before 7:00am, lunch and dinner if you leave between 7:00am and 1:00pm, and dinner if you leave after 1:00pm. On the day the trips concludes, you are eligible for breakfast, lunch and dinner if you return after 6:00pm, lunch and dinner if you return between noon and 6:00pm, and breakfast if you return before noon. You cannot claim per diem if someone hosted you or if the meal was included in a conference registration fee. You cannot claim breakfast if you stayed at a B&B. You CAN claim meals during the flight, even if something was provided on the plane. When traveling from city to city, meal per diem will be based on where you spend the night.  Lodging-You can be reimbursed for lodging up to the per diem figure (the foreign lodging per diem rates include all taxes). You can be reimbursed for non- commercial lodging if you stay with a friend or family member.  Official hosting-If you host a guest (not another employee) for a meal with a business related purpose, you can be reimbursed for your and your guest(s) meals up to the foreign per diem figure per person (B:25%, L:25%, D:50%).  Miscellaneous expenses- You can be reimbursed for business related phone calls, one call home every other day (max $15), email access, visa & passport fees, supplies, airport parking and other business related misc expenses.

Foreign per diem rates (subject to change monthly):  See the US Federal Per Diem rates web site: http://aoprals.state.gov/content.asp?content_id=184&menu_id=78  $25 for non-commercial lodging Exception made for conference lodging with documentation of conference lodging rates and that the hotel is the conference site

Non-reimbursable expenses:  Laundry expenses, tips and gratuities (unless official hosting), gifts, alcoholic beverages, and additional expenses incurred for traveling with a family member/friend, etc. (Actually, items such as laundry and tips are some of the “incidental” expenses included in the “Meals & Incidental” per diem.)

Receipts: You do NOT need a receipt for these items:  Meals for yourself if claiming per diem  Commercial ground transportation under $75 (trains, taxis, buses, metro, etc). You do need to list where you went though - “Taxi airport to hotel”, etc. You might get a small spiral notebook and keep a log if you will have many trips.  Miscellaneous expenses under $25 (which you will need to itemize though) You DO need a receipt for these items:  Lodging -The lodging receipt must show the name and address of the business, itemized charges for room, taxes, internet access, phone, food, etc, and that it was paid – charged to a credit card or balance due of zero. If a family member or friend is traveling with you, you must have the single room rate written on the hotel receipt. If you don’t get documentation of the single room rate, you will be reimbursed for 90% of the lodging cost.  Ground transportation over $75  Miscellaneous expenses over $25 (parking is considered a misc expense and not ground transportation)  Official hosting – you must have a copy of the itemized guest ticket showing what was ordered, as well as a receipt showing that it was paid (a credit card receipt, or “paid w/ cash” written on the guest ticket). A 15% gratuity is allowed. Also, you’ll need to provide a statement of the business purpose and a list of the attendees and their titles.

The OSU travel policy states “Travel Reimbursement Request forms will be used for the reimbursement of travel expenses of employees, students, and non-employees. A travel reimbursement request form cannot be filed before the trip is completed and should be filed in a reasonable period of time. (The IRS defines reasonable as within 60 days.) If the trip is exceptionally lengthy, interim filings may be permitted with prior approval. In no case can a reimbursement request be submitted after the close of the fiscal year in which the cost was incurred.” International Programs request that your travel reimbursement request be submitted within 3 weeks of your return.

Exchange rates: You can provide receipts showing what rate you received when exchanging money for expenses paid with cash, such as taxis, etc., and a copy of your credit card statement for items that were charged to your credit card, such as lodging. However, I find it just as easy to use the Oanda web site to get an average cash and credit card rate for the time period. When people have provided the actual exchange rate receipts or credit card statements, I have done some spot checking against the rates on Oanda and they were very close, and sometimes better. However, the exchange rate method is up to you. If you don’t provide receipts showing the actual exchange rate received, the travel clerk will automatically use the Oanda web site.

For more travel information, you may go to the OSU Travel Manual. http://oregonstate.edu/dept/budgets/TRAManual/TRATOC.htm

For reimbursement process, see “Foreign Travel: Reimbursement” excel file.