Employee and self-employed travel expenses, what changes with the new tax decree

From the traceability of reimbursements for travel expenses to the extension to 21 July of the payment of taxes without a surcharge for VAT numbers. This is the wide scope of the decree-law introducing urgent provisions on tax matters, approved on Thursday 12 June by the Cdm. The text envisages, among other things, a series of simplification measures for determining self-employment income, including the deductibility of travel, board and lodging expenses incurred abroad, even if made using non-traceable means. Like businesses, the deductibility of entertainment expenses is instead conditional on payment by traceable means everywhere, not only in Italy.

Among the most controversial rules, at least in terms of application for businesses, of the last budget law was in fact the traceability of travel expenses. In response to requests from professionals and businesses, a clearer perimeter of the new obligation to trace travel expenses introduced on 1 January 2025 has arrived. On the payment of transport costs (essentially taxis) or meal expenses, a double tax axe falls on the employee and the company.

In the first case, in fact, the reimbursement of expenses incurred is subject to taxation. While on the employer's side, the penalty is the non-deductibility of costs reimbursed to employees. A new rule that, as mentioned, has created many problems for businesses, especially since under the current wording there are no territorial borders and it applies to expenses incurred both domestically and abroad. This is an obvious nonsense given that the measure was created for anti-evasion purposes to hit the recipients of payments and bring to light taxable income from those who perhaps collect in cash and then do not declare.

This is why the course correction entered into the tax decree law (thus ensuring its immediate effectiveness) limits the traceability obligation to only travel expenses incurred within the national territory. The rewriting of the rule is also necessary to coordinate it with the new rules on taxation of self-employment introduced with the tax reform and in particular with the Irpef-Ires decree law