Flat rate estimation of travel allowances

The TSJ Murcia understands that the payment of a fixed monthly amount independently and without reference to specific and justified displacements, is considered a part of the remuneration or salary, fully subject to personal income tax and without being considered as a diet, since in In no way is the necessary indemnity nature of the benefit received accredited.

The LIRPF declares exempt (with certain limits and requirements) the allowances and allowances for travel expenses received by the workers in the exercise of their work activity, based on their compensatory nature.

It is precisely that compensatory nature, for which it is intended to alleviate the expense incurred by the worker to carry out his work, which obliges to know previously what those expenses have been in order to, consequently, be able to fix the corresponding compensation, which It requires that the taxpayer must prove them. For this reason, the determination of an amount of flat-rate diets and prior character clearly clashes with the nature of the aforementioned diet, since it is not fixed in relation to specific trips to places other than the workplace, but generally.

This is the case of a taxpayer, also administrator of the company for which he works, who allocates a fixed amount every month for diets, which the Administration required to justify them, and who provided a series of documents (payrolls, withholding certificates, restaurant tickets, gas station tickets in which, as in the restaurant, there was no taxpayer name or vehicle registration, time tickets for parking in the blue zone, etc.), without detailing or identifying the specific amount that corresponded and justifying each displacement or expense of maintenance or stay in which he had incurred, and which were not admitted as evidence by the Administration.

The Court notes that internal documentation prepared by the interested party itself is not sufficient, such as monthly summaries of allowances, proof of payment to workers (payrolls) or the parts of the worker’s own work, but that it is necessary to provide sufficient external documentation or documentary support of the concepts contained in such internal documents, especially when, in this case, the taxpayer is an administrator of the employer, which facilitates the possibility of obtaining the necessary documentation for the proof of the facts that cover the exemption, gathering the required proof: fuel bills, documentation proving departure, restaurant expenses, parking … Therefore, taking into account this principle of availability, the evidence provided is insufficient. This, together with the perception of a fixed monthly amount, implies for the Court an indication that said sum is remuneration instead of compensation.

Starting from the general principle of the concept as income from the work of the diets and travel assignments, the application of the exemption requires a probative activity of the recipient as a taxpayer.

For its part, art. 106.1 LGT provides that in the tax procedures the norms that on media and assessment of evidence are contained in the CC and in the Civil Procedure Law will apply, unless the law establishes otherwise. Therefore, when art. 9 RIRPF requires the justification of the displacement and provides that this must be accredited by the payer, is not configuring an autonomous obligation in relation to this and detached from the probationary activity of the taxpayer, but the only thing that concerns is who should prepare at the request of the latter the corresponding justification, certification or report. That is, the taxpayer is the one who must prove the displacement and justify his reason or motive through what the payer indicates in this regard, which is consistent as to who has decided on the need for such displacement and the reason or reason that justifies it in relation to expenses of locomotion and maintenance, for which purpose it is necessary to justify the reality of the displacement and that the invoiced is in the name of the taxpayer, and not that of the company for which he works.