This publication is for employers who pay a per diem allowance to
employees for business travel away from home on or after October 1,
2000, within the continental United States (CONUS). It gives the
maximum per diem rate you can use without treating part of the per
diem allowance as wages for tax purposes. For a detailed discussion on
the tax treatment of a per diem allowance, see chapter 13 of
Publication 535, Business Expenses, or Revenue Procedure
2000-39, 2000-41 I.R.B. 340.
High-low method.
Table 1, Localities Eligible for $201 ($42 M&IE) Per Diem
Amount Under the High-Low Substantiation Method, lists the
localities that are treated under that method as high cost localities
for 2001 or the part of the year shown in column 4. Table 1 is on page
2. All other localities within CONUS are eligible for $124 ($34 meals
and incidental expenses (M&IE)) per diem under the high-low
method.
Regular federal per diem rate method.
Table 2, Maximum Federal Per Diem Rates, gives the
regular federal per diem rate, including the separate rate for meals
and incidental expenses (M&IE) for each locality. Table 2 begins
on page 3. The standard rate for all locations within CONUS not
specifically listed in Table 2 is $85 ($55 for lodging and $30
for M&IE). A federal agency can ask the General Services
Administration to review the per diem rate in a particular locality.
The process is described in footnote 4 of the table.
Travel outside CONUS.
The federal per diem rates for localities outside CONUS, including
Alaska, Hawaii,
Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, U.S. possessions, and
all foreign localities, are published monthly. You can buy the per
diem supplement, Maximum Travel Per Diem Allowances for Foreign
Areas, from the U.S. Government Printing Office. Call (202)
512-1800 (not a toll-free number), write to the U.S.
Government Printing Office, P.O. Box 371954, Pittsburgh, PA
15250-7954, or visit the GPO web site at
http://bookstore.gpo.gov.
Per diem rates on the internet.
You can access the federal per diem rates on the internet at
www.policyworks.gov/perdiem.
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