meals

Incidental Expenses
A. Fees and tips given to porters, baggage carriers, bellhops, hotel maids, stewards or stewardesses and others on ships, and hotel servants in foreign countries.
B. Transportation between places of lodging or business and places where meals are taken.
C. Mailing cost associated with filing travel vouchers and payment of Government charge card billings.

• Travelers may use the domestic per diem rate or actual domestic expenses provided they are less than the total allowable per diem rate.

• For travel in certain high rate cities within the United States listed below, the per diem rate is $71 per day. The high rate city list is per the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) highest tier per diem rate cities.

• For travel in all other cities within the United States, Canada and Mexico the per diem rate is $46 per day. United States territories and possessions (Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands) also must use the domestic rate.

• The full day per-diem allowance will not be granted to travelers that are provided meals as part of their official university business. Overnight half day per-diems are not subject to adjustments for meals provided. The value of any meals provided while on travel status should be subtracted from the full daily meal per diem rate based on the following schedule:

Meal Provided	Amount to subtract for $71.00 cities	Amount to subtract for $46.00 cities
Breakfast	$12.00	$ 7.00
Lunch	$18.00	$11.00
Dinner	$36.00	$23.00
Incidentals	$ 5.00	$ 5.00

Listing of cities within the United States with a $71 per diem allowance

State	Primary Destination	State	Primary Destination
AZ	Phoenix	RI	Bristol
AZ	Scottsdale	RI	Jamestown
CA	Los Angeles	RI	Middletown
CA	Monterey	RI	Newport
CA	Palm Springs	RI	Providence
CA	San Diego	TX	Austin
CA	San Francisco	TX	Dallas
CA	Santa Monica	TX	Houston
CA	South Lake Tahoe	UT	Park City
CA	Truckee	VT	Manchester
CA	Yosemite National Park	VT	Stowe
CO	Aspen	WA	Seattle
CO	Telluride
CO	Vail
CT	Bridgeport
CT	Danbury
DC	District of Columbia
FL	Boca Raton
FL	Delray Beach
FL	Jupiter
FL	Fort Lauderdale
FL	Key West
ID	Sun Valley
ID	Ketchum
IL	Chicago
LA	New Orleans
MA	Boston
MA	Burlington
MA	Cambridge
MA	Martha's Vineyard
MA	Woburn
MD	Baltimore City
MD	Ocean City
MN	Minneapolis / St. Paul
NM	Santa Fe
NV	Las Vegas
NY	New York
NY	Melville
NY	Riverhead
NY	Ronkonkoma
NY	Tarrytown
NY	New Rochelle
NY	White Plains
PA	Pittsburgh

Questions may be referred to the Travel Unit of the Controller’s Office at 545-0806
Per diem memo of 12/14/2011 (pdf)

BUSINESS MEAL EXPENSES

Documentation for business meals must include a statement of business purpose and a list of attendees in order to meet University and IRS guidelines.

For business meals, original receipts must be submitted with the printed Expense Report.
Tips included on business meal receipts will be reimbursed. As a general rule, travelers should not tip more than 20% of the bill.

ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES

The use of alcohol for business entertainment purposes is highly discouraged and only allowed in special circumstances.

Federal regulations prohibit charging alcoholic beverages to sponsored grants and/or contracts.
Should there be any questions regarding the use of alcoholic beverages for business functions, please contact the Controller’s Office.

International travelers may use the U.S. Department of Defense Foreign Per Diem rates. International per diem rates can be used to obtain reimbursement for authorized travel outside the United States, Canada and Mexico. The domestic per diem applies to all travel in Canada, Mexico and United States territories. The U.S. Department of Defense Foreign Per Diem rate is broken down into maximum lodging, local meals, and local incidentals so the applicable categories can be applied.

The current federal per diem rate is applicable to international travel and may be used in all cases of international travel unless the traveler chooses to request reimbursement for actual expenses. In this case, receipts may be submitted with the printed Expense Report but cannot exceed the per diem rate. If a traveler chooses the per diem rate method and does not want the full amount, he/she must indicate the allowable and the actual being requested. The value of any meals provided while on international travel status should be subtracted from the daily meal per diem rate.

The full per diem rate is allowed when an employee is traveling for at least 24 hours. One half the per diem rate is allowed when travel status is at least 12 consecutive hours but less than 24 hours. UMass does not allow per diem when on travel for less the 12 hours. The per-diem calculation is driven by the number of hours away on travel with each 12 hour period increasing the amount by a half day per-diem. The following can be used as a guide when calculating per-diem:

     Travel                 Per-Diem
Hours:Minutes           (Days)
0:00 to 11:59       =   0.0
12:00 to 23:59       =   0.5
24:00 to 35.59       =   1.0
36:00 to 47:59       =   1.5
48:00 to 59:59       =   2.0
60:00 to 71:59       =   2.5
72:00 to 83.59       =   3.0
84:00 to 95.59       =   3.5
each additional
12 hour increment = +0.5

Example: Trip departure on 7/1 5:00AM with a return time of 7/2 10:00PM can be reimbursed for up to 1.5 days per diem not 2 days for the 41 hour trip.

The U.S. Department of Defense Foreign has a Per Diem Rates Query available on-line at: http://www.defensetravel.dod.mil/site/perdiemCalc.cfm. Selecting the appropriate country from the “OUTSIDE CONUS, Non-Foreign Overseas and Foreign” inquiry section will return rates by city and rate for all “Other” when a specific locality is not listed.