3108615 - How Meals Per Diem Deductions are Calculated in Germany

You have created an expense report for a two day trip with lodging within Germany. Some of the meals have been marked as free meals, hence you expect the corresponding deduction to happen. However, the amount to be reimbursed to the employee with regard to the meals per diem calculation is not the expected one.

SAP Business ByDesign.

1. Go to Travel and Expenses work center.
2. Go to Expense Reports view.
3. Open the respective expense report.
4. Go to General tab.
5. Click Deduct Free Meals.

See that for each day some free meals have been marked, for example:

• Day 1 -> dinner is flagged as free meal.
• Day 2 -> breakfast and lunch flagged as free meal.

6. Go to Review tab.
7. Refer to the amount to be reimbursed related to meals per diem.

The amount is not as expected considering the current per diem rates and deductions due to free meals. You would like to understand how the deductions are calculated.

The applicable meals per diem rates and corresponding deduction amounts due to free meals can be checked in business configuration activity 'Per Diem Rates for Meals - Germany'.

As an illustration, let's assume a per diem rate of 14 EUR or this trip and deduction rates of 20% for breakfast, 40% for lunch and 40% for dinner.

According to the legal German settlement of per diems and deductions, the amount of deductions is calculated based on the highest rate in Germany (= 28 EUR), which leads to a deduction of 5.60 EUR per breakfast and 11.20 EUR per lunch / dinner.

However, these deductions are subtracted day wise from the real rate per day (14 EUR for a two-day trip) and not from the cumulated sum over all days. Considering the example mentioned in the above section, that means:

• Day 1 -> 14 EUR - 11.20 EUR per Dinner = 2.80 EUR
• Day 2 -> 14 EUR - 11.20 EUR per Lunch - 5.60 EUR per breakfast = 0 (and not -2.80).
• Since you cannot get more deducted as you get paid per day, the maximum deduction for this day is the whole daily rate of 14 EUR.

Therefore, for this example, the total meals per diem reimbursement amount in the Review tab is 2.80 EUR.

2468345 - Per Diem Rates for Meals - Germany is Calculated Differently

Expense Report. Settlement. Reimbursement Amount. Meals Per Diem. , KBA , AP-ERM-ER , Expense Report , How To