From 01.01.2024, the flat rates for travel within Germany are to be adjusted. The Growth Opportunities Act provides for the following adjustments:
| OLD | NEW (DRAFT) | |
|---|---|---|
| First an last day | 14,00€ | 16,00€ |
| Intermediate days | 28,00€ | 32,00€ |
However, the Federal Council still has to approve the law. The Bundesrat called on the Mediation Committee on 24.11.2023. The decision on the increase in additional meal expenses from 01.01.2024 is therefore still pending.
What does this mean for Spesenfuchs?
If Spesenfuchs detects that you want to approve a trip within Germany for 2024, you will receive a warning. You can decide whether you want to approve the trip or send it to your supervisor for review, or whether you want to cancel at this point and submit the trip later when the new per diems for Germany have been determined by the legislator.
| We recommend that you do not yet release the trips and therefore do not transfer them to your accounting or payroll department, as the values will most likely change retroactively. This will prevent you from submitting incorrect statements to your accounting or payroll department and having to make time-consuming corrections at a later date. As soon as the legislator has decided on the new values, we will inform you via the dashboard in Spesenfuchs. |
What can you do?
You can continue to enter your trips and release them later as soon as the final per diems have been decided.
If you only want to settle receipts or settle the per diems separately from the receipts, then enter a trip with a very short duration, e.g. one hour before the actual travel period, and insert the receipts into this trip without per diems. You can continue to settle these. Enter the per diems for this trip in another trip with the correct duration and release it when the final per diems have been decided.
If you only want to create a test trip in Spesenfuchs, you can select a date from 2023 or create a trip abroad. In this case, the per diems are correct.
Procedure if trips have been settled with the wrong per diems
The following describes the work to be done if the additional per diem expenses have changed retroactively and trips have already been transferred to accounting.
In the accounting department
- Cancel or delete the incorrect travel expense reports that have already been posted.
In Spesenfuchs
- As an administrator, you can reset the status of a trip that has already been approved or exported. When the trip is back in "In entry" status, save it again. This means that the correct values are used and saved for calculating the per diem. You can now release the trip again and transfer it to the accounting/wage/salary department.
Alternatively, leave the incorrect travel expenses in Spesenfuchs as they are and only make correcting entries in the accounting department.
Discuss the best solution for you with your tax advisor.