On April 25, 2025, a draft Federal law has been submitted to the State Duma to increase the limits on non-taxable per diem allowances.

According to the current labor legislation (Article 168 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation), when sending an employee on a business trip, the employer is obliged to reimburse the employee for the following types of expenses: travel expenses, accommodation expenses, and additional expenses. The peculiarity of this norm is that it is applied in interaction with tax legislation, which in Article 217 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation establishes the limits of per diem allowances in national currency, which are not subject to taxation.

As the authors of the draft law note, due to the fact that the monetary system is subject to the influence of macroeconomic factors such as inflation, the limits on non-taxable income of individuals should be changed over time in the interests of realizing the original purpose of the norm. These limits have not been changed for long periods of time, which negatively affects the provision of per diem allowances to employees. Thus, if an employer wants to allocate a larger sum of money, tax will be charged on it, which will lead to an actual reduction in the employee’s cash allowance.

At present, where an employer pays a taxpayer for expenses related to a business trip, income subject to taxation does not include per diem allowances within the limits of:

  • 700 rubles for each day of a business trip within Russia;
  • 2,500 roubles for each day of a business trip outside the country;
  • 3,500 rubles when paying subsistence allowances to employees whose permanent work is performed on the road or is of a traveling nature, and to employees working in field conditions or participating in expeditionary work, as well as an allowance for the rotational method of work in lieu of subsistence allowances to persons performing work on a rotational basis for each day of performing said work (being on the road) outside the Russian Federation.

The amendments to Article 217 of Part Two of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation envisage an increase in the maximum amount of tax-free subsistence allowances to 1,500 roubles for each day spent on business trips within the country and to 4,500 roubles for foreign business trips.

The amendments to the Tax Code will enter into force from the date of their official publication.

Link: https://sozd.duma.gov.ru/bill/903358-8

Draft Law No. 903358-8