Daily allowances or per Diems in Russia and how to calculate them; you will not get rich ….
Per Diems or daily allowance are additional payments to employees to cover their potential additional costs when travelling for work related matters in Russia or abroad.
The current Russian levels on per diems are:
- The daily standard for travel in Russia is 700 RUB per day (or abut 10 Euro / 11 US Dollar at end 2015 exchange rates)
- The standard per diem for travel abroad is 2500 RUB per day and it does not matter if it is to the Ukraine or to expensive destination like Singapore (or about 36 Euro / 40 US Dollar per day at end 2015 exchange rates) .
Different per diem rates can be set in a corporate policy
The potential differences are:
- Higher per diems (but be attentive – higher amounts are deductible for tax purposes to lower profit tax, but for salary purposes the difference from the standard per diems is taxed with income tax for the recipient of the higher daily allowance)
- Per diems can be lowered too but in principle Russian per diems are already low
- Additional payments for travel which does not fall under rules for per diems e.g. it does not meet the minimum one day requirement (see examples below)
- Using different currencies for the per diems, e.g. when travelling to a Euro country, using the Euro and not rubles for the per diems as in Euro currently 2500 Ruble might be very low at the current exchange rates.
| Business Trip Example | Calculation |
|---|---|
| 6 AM – Moscow to Vladimir 10 PM back in Moscow from Kaluga | No per diem, less than one calendar day |
| 6 AM – Vladimir to Kaluga Overnight in Kaluga Next day 1 PM back in Vladimir from Kaluga | 2 days. 2 * 700 rubles = 1400 rubles |
| 8 PM Sankt Petersburg flight to Frankfurt Next day leaving Frankfurt at 10 PM Arriving next day 4 AM back in Sankt Petersburg | 3 days, First day at 700 rubles and two days at 2500 rubles = 5700 rubles |
| 6 AM Moscow to St Petersburg Overnight in St Petersburg Next day 6 AM Allegro train from St. Petersburg to Helsinki Evening 9 PM Helsinki to Moscow Sheremetovo, arriving at home before midnight | 2 days; 1 at 700 rubles and one at 2500 rubles = 3200 rubles |
The first day of travel is counted from the country where the person is leaving from. 
An additional consideration for travelers e.g. to Moscow Russia, is that traveling time counts till a traveler is back home. Thus if a traveler to Moscow arrives shortly before midnight by plane or train as there are many connections late into the city the travel home counts too. Arriving past midnight, and even if only 10 minutes means an additional day of travel under Russian per diem rules.
If business travel is mixed with private travel then more items may arise. 
If just a weekend is added in the middle – the accountant in principle will not pay per diems for the weekend in between except if it is business related. But better to check what the accountant does as this is a very difficult to control area for management.
If there is a longer time in between, like a vacation, the accountant should classify the return plane ticket as a financial advantage and income tax arises on this part. (E.g. travel back home and then another week of vacation on private basis).
Until January 1 2015 it was necessary to have a travel order signed and stamped by the receiving party, but this requirement has since been scrapped in Russia.