Compensation for business travel time YES or NO?

Travel activities that take employees to a location other than their place of work in order to pursue professional activities are usually considered business trips.
There are different regulations in Austria and Germany as to when a business trip is considered to be a business trip:

Austria

Definition of business trip

• The destination must be a certain distance from the starting point of the trip. The required distance is regulated differently depending on the collective agreement. According to municipal law, the distance must be 3 km, according to the collective agreement for IT or trade 12 kilometers and if nothing else is defined in a collective agreement, it is 25 kilometers.
• If the destination is sufficiently far away, the duration of the business trip must be at least 3 hours, otherwise there is no entitlement to tax-free daily allowances.

Definition of business trip

• All customer visits or business trips in the after-work area that are not business trips according to the above definition.
• There is no entitlement to daily allowances, other expenses / mileage allowances can be claimed.

Germany

Definition of business trip

• Includes all business-related trips that are not connected to the place of work. From a duration of 8 hours, this is officially referred to as a business trip.

Definition of business trip

• Activities in the vicinity of the place of work: e.g. a customer visit in the immediate vicinity of the permanent workplace.

Austria

In Austria, a distinction is made between active and passive travel time:

• Active travel time = driving a vehicle
  • Active travel times are to be treated as working time, whereby supplementary regulations may be defined in the respective collective agreement or company agreement.
• Passive travel time = train, airplane, passenger, ...
  • Passive travel time does not count as working time within the meaning of the maximum daily working time (=12 hours), but in many cases is still remunerated. The amount of remuneration may be defined in the collective agreement, the works agreement or the employment contract.

Germany

In Germany, there are legal regulations concerning the remuneration of travel time to professional events. In principle, the following applies:

• Working time during the trip: If a business trip takes place during normal working hours, the time spent traveling is considered working time and must be remunerated accordingly.
• Travel time outside regular working hours: If the journey takes place outside normal working hours, the remuneration depends on the specific agreements in the employment contract, collective agreement or works agreement. According to rulings by the Federal Labor Court, the time spent traveling to and from work, which is outside of regular working hours, is considered working time if the employer expressly instructs the employee to work on the train/plane during the travel activity. This travel activity is therefore also regarded as working time, whereby it should be noted that the maximum maximum working time of 10 hours may not be exceeded.
• Allowance and expenses: Employees may be entitled to reimbursement of travel expenses, such as travel costs, accommodation costs and additional meal expenses in accordance with the applicable tax and labor law provisions.

It is important to check the employment contract, collective agreement or applicable company agreements to find out exactly how travel time is remunerated. In some cases, employers may also offer more generous arrangements than those required by law.

The correct recording of working hours, travel times and travel expense reports can cause high internal costs and is still solved in many companies with the help of Excel or paper.

With Personalwolke, you can rely on modern software that greatly simplifies the recording process and reduces monitoring efforts.

The appropriate assessment rules and reasons for attendance are stored in our software.

This means that travel times no longer have to be calculated manually.

Time recording and travel expense accounting in one!

Your employees benefit from easy-to-use software that can be used to quickly record business trips, including working hours.

The data is recorded with the help of an intelligent billing assistant that guides you step by step through the billing process.

It is also possible to clock in travel times and working hours during business trips via the Personalwolke smartphone app.

Time recording information: Time personnel cloud
Travel expense report information: Personnel Cloud Travel