Allowances

4

minutes reading

What are travel allowances?

When you travel in connection with your work, your employer can choose to pay tax-free travel allowance to cover the expenses associated with accommodation, food and petty acquisitions at fixed rates. Certain conditions must be met before the allowances can be paid tax-free. If the conditions are not met, the allowances are taxable.

Whether you are an employee or a part of the finance department, it should be easy to register and manage diets according to national rates.

If your employer does not pay travel allowance you can choose to deduct your actually documented expenses on your tax return. In 2021, you can receive a maximum deduction of DKK 29,300. If you have already received some travel allowances but the amount is lower than the rates, you can receive a deduction for the difference.

Conditions for travel allowance

The employee must be away for a minimum of 24 hours and it must be a documented business travel before you are entitled to the tax-free travel allowance. In addition, it is a prerequisite that the employee has a temporary workplace, a normal place of residence and spends the night away from home. The Danish Customs and Tax Administration (SKAT) looks in particular at two factors that determine whether the employee is considered to be travelling: distance and work.

Distance

Distance is the kilometer distance between the temporary workplace and normal place of residence considered. If you have the opportunity to spend the night at home at your residence every night, you cannot receive tax-free travel allowance. On the other hand, you are probably entitled if you are visiting your company’s foreign branch. Here, obviously, the distance is too great for you to spend the night at your own residence.

Work

The second aspect is work, where it is a prerequisite that the workplace is temporary. But what is the definition of a temporary workplace? That is not 100 % clear, but SKAT focus especially on the period of time during which the employee works at the workplace. The shorter the period, the more likely it is that it is a temporary workplace.

Finally, it should be mentioned that the employee can only get a tax-free allowance for food and petty acquisitions at the standard rate during the first 12 months in which the employee is working at a temporary workplace. The 12-month time limitation applies to the individual workplace. A new 12-month period therefore begins if an employee switches to a new temporary workplace.

Rates

Rates per day20212020
AccomodationDKK 228DKK 223
Food and petty acquisitions for other salary earnersDKK 532DKK 521

Who cannot receive travel allowance?

First and foremost, you must be resident in Denmark. Certain groups of employees are covered by special tax schemes and are not entitled to travel allowance. This is the case for registered commercial fishermen, for certain employees stationed by the Danish state and for employees undergoing education. Special rules apply for tourist drivers as well.

Want to know more?

If you need further information, we recommend that you read more about allowances on SKAT’s website. If you are looking for a system that can handle travel allowances for your employees, Acubiz calculate allowance based on the current national rates which we make sure to update automatically.

Read more about how we manage travel allowances.

Få en gratis demonstration

For at udfylde formularen, skal du først acceptere vores marketing cookies.
Klik her for at tilpasse dine valg af cookies.

Get a free demonstration

To complete the form, you must first accept our marketing cookies.
Click here to customize your cookie choices.

Det er super, at I har styr på processerne!

Hvis I på et tidspunkt skal kigge jeres processer efter i sømmene, så har vi lavet et lille opslagsværk, som I eventuelt kan kigge i.

Hvis du udfylder formularen nedenfor, så sender vi et eksemplar til dig.

Den ultimative guide til: Expense Management
For at udfylde formularen, skal du først acceptere vores marketing cookies.
Klik her for at tilpasse dine valg af cookies.

Få en gratis demonstration

For at udfylde formularen, skal du først acceptere vores marketing cookies.
Klik her for at tilpasse dine valg af cookies.

Godt at høre, at I har mestret Expense Management!

Lorem ipsum…

For at udfylde formularen, skal du først acceptere vores marketing cookies.
Klik her for at tilpasse dine valg af cookies.

Free and non-committal

To complete the form, you must first accept our marketing cookies.
Click here to customize your cookie choices.