Travel allowances and benefits in kind 2023 for business trips

As a general rule, employees who travel for business purposes are entitled to an allowance to cover the cost of meals. These lump sums for additional meal expenses are commonly referred to as travel allowances, daily allowances or per diems. They offset the higher cost of meals on business trips. Because meals away from home usually cost more than at home, the allowances abroad are adjusted to the cost of living in the respective destination country.

Contents: Germany 2023 · Abroad 2023 · Benefit-in-kind values 2023 · Spesenfuchs

Daily allowance Germany 2023

The allowances for trips within Germany did not increase in 2023. The same values applied as in 2021 and 2022:

Per diem rates abroad 2023

From 1 January 2023, the allowances for business trips abroad increased. The rates for all countries can be found in the letter from the Federal Ministry of Finance on the tax treatment of travel expenses and travel expense allowances for business and work-related trips abroad from 1 January 2023 (PDF, in German).

Benefit-in-kind values 2023

The monthly value for meals rose to €288 from 1 January 2023. For meals provided free of charge or at a reduced price, the following values applied per calendar day:

Settling with Spesenfuchs

Spesenfuchs calculates the per diems automatically by country and length of absence, including trips with several stops. You mark meals provided per day, and Spesenfuchs reduces the allowance accordingly. Kilometres are calculated from the route. The statutory allowances are stored in Spesenfuchs and kept up to date.

Sources: § 9 EStG, § 2 SvEV, BMF letter of 23 November 2022