Reimbursement of expenses for business trips in the Netherlands
Are you travelling on business in the Netherlands? Then your travel and subsistence expenses will be reimbursed. Before making a business trip, arrange permission from your manager.
Travel with public transport unless this is unfeasible, in which case you may use your own vehicle, a taxi or a rental car, but do discuss this beforehand with your manager.
If you receive a travel allowance from a party other than the University, this will be deducted from the sum for which you may claim.
Allowance
The following travel expenses will be reimbursed:
- If you travel with public transport, your actual costs will be reimbursed. If you travel by train, you may travel first class and will be reimbursed for this.
- If you have permission to travel with your own car, you will be reimbursed € 0.23 per kilometre.
- If you have permission to travel by taxi or rental car, the full cost will be reimbursed. When travelling by rental car, do not forget to keep a logbook of your kilometres and submit this as proof for your claim.
- If you have a disabled badge, you will be reimbursed € 0.23 per kilometre and any parking fees.
- If your business trip lasts longer than four hours and takes you further than one kilometre from your workplace, you are entitled to an accommodation expenses allowance: for instance, for meals and small expenses. There are fixed reimbursement rates for these costs and you must meet a number of conditions.
Fixed reimbursement rates
| Category | Amount |
|---|---|
| Minor expenses in daytime (day component) |
€ 6,64 |
| Minor expenses in the evening (evening component) |
€ 19,82 |
| Lunch |
€ 20,32 |
| Dinner |
€ 30,74 |
| Lodging |
€ 142,10 |
| Breakfast |
€ 13,88 |
Conditions
The allowance will be paid out to you tax-free, irrespective of the amount of your actual expenses, provided you meet the following conditions:
- You must have actually incurred these expenses for lunch, evening meals, lodging and breakfast in an establishment intended for that purpose.
- To qualify for the lunch and dinner allowance, your business trip must include lunchtime (between 12:00 and 14:00 hrs) and dinnertime (between 18:00 and 21:00 hrs). You do not have to submit receipts for these expenses.
- You are entitled to the daytime component if your business trip lasts at least 4 hours per full 24 hrs period.
- You are entitled to the evening, lodging and breakfast components only if your business trip includes an overnight stay.
- If your business trip lasts longer than eight days, you will be reimbursed for the full evening component for the first eight days, following which your allowance will be halved
Route card
If you regularly take the same route on University business, use a route card (in Dutch: trajectkaart) or the like to reduce costs.
Submit your expense claims
- You can submit your travel and accommodation expenses via Self Service.
- Log on to Remote Workplace.
- Choose SAP Self Service.
- Submit your claim as soon as possible but no more than three months after the end of the calendar year.
- Ensure that you have an electronic copy of your proof or purchase, for instance an original receipt, before you submit your claim.
- Before making a business trip, arrange permission from your manager. Your activity holder and budget holder must approve your claim.
Funding
LIAS is committed to supporting professional travel of its employees: conference attendance, research and training trips, etc.
Travel funding application
Diversity of individual circumstances and our budgetary situation make it impossible to set fixed individual travel budgets. Funding is allocated by the LIAS MT, taking into account overall budgetary and policy issues, the availability of project monies (NWO, etc), and previous support for the applicant. LIAS funding normally does not exceed 1000 euros and a member of staff can only apply for funding once a year and only, when attending a conference, to present a paper. Staff should explore other sources of (co-)funding first before applying for support from LIAS. This includes grants and subsidies from funds and foundations within the university, such as AMT, Global Interactions, LUCIS, IIAS, LeidenAsiaCentre, the Aillion Foundation and the Leiden University Fund. Evidence of applications and amount of funding received from these sources should be included with the application for LIAS funding. Decisions on funding will be made 3 times per year, in the first week of April, August and December. Please plan well ahead so you can register in time for the conference you want to visit.
Application deadlines for 2020-2021 are 28 February 2021, 30 Juny 2021 and 31 October 2021.
You should run your plans by your supervisor (leidinggevende) prior to submitting your application to lias@hum.leidenuniv.nl with cc to your supervisor.
Funding will be limited to travel and accommodation, and other directly work-related items such as conference fees. Per diem costs, such as dinners and lunches, will not be funded.
If your application is successful, you will be notified, including instructions for claiming the expenses.
If there's budget left after applications have been granted LIAS might grant it to earlier denied applications.
Useful links
- Procedure for booking (international) business trips. All staff members should be “authorized bookers”in the Uniglobe system. If you run into problems opening an account, please contact the LIAS office.
- Expense claims of University staff. Please be aware that in selfservice the system automatically calculates a per diem allowance. LIAS does not pay for such expenses from the central travel budget. You should change the numbers of dinners, lunches etc into zero in order to claim just the hotel costs. Update the claim by pushing the small button with the two arrows on the right hand site below the specification of your costs to see if it worked before submitting.
- Government rate list of hotel fees abroad (Dutch only)
Guest participants in PhD defense
For PhD defenses, LIAS will pay for travelcosts of one examiner from outside the University, preferably from the Netherlands. If necessary costs will be covered for one examiner from Europe (flight and 1 night accommodation). Please contact the LIAS office well in advance to arrange this.