Is Reimbursement for mileage legally mandatory?
NPeeples
1 Post
We are hiring temporary sales trainers that will travel to and from client locations throughout the day. Are we legally required to reimburse for mileage between his/her home and the first business stop, and the last business stop and home?
According to the IRS, these are examples of communiting expenses and not business travel expenses and any reimbursements would be taxable. Thank you.
Comments
NPeeples-
No you are not legally required to compensate this distance (to/fro home and work). Now I do believe there to be an IRS exception that states that a certain mileage commuted from a work location to home or vice versa is compensable after a set amount of miles (50 I think--sorry for lack of affirmed info there). Keep in mind that this is a one-way distance factor only so it is rare to have this occur. Hope this helps a bit.
If they are contractors, they can be compensated by any method that doesn't interfere with their status as contractors or otherwise contravene the law.
If they are "hired" as employees, temporary or otherwise, it matters if they are exempt or not. Where they are driving to matters, as well. If they can go straight to the alternative work site, and if it's roughly the same time/distance as the standard work site, it matters less.