Drivers’ business travel: flat-rate deduction requires actual expense

Business travel and transfer
Drivers’ business travel: the flat-rate deduction requires an actual cost
Italian Revenue Agency

A road haulage company asked whether it could apply the flat-rate deduction provided for drivers’ business travel outside the municipal territory even where, in practice, it did not grant employees any allowance or expense reimbursement. The query concerned both directly employed staff and agency workers engaged as drivers.
The tax authority answered in the negative. The flat-rate deduction is not a benefit detached from any cost, but still presupposes that the business has actually incurred an expense connected with the business travel. The fact that the amount is determined on a flat-rate basis does not therefore remove the need for an actual expense, even if it is not calculated analytically.
In the case examined, the company stated that it paid no amount whatsoever for drivers’ business travel, whether as an allowance or as a reimbursement. In the absence of an actual cost incurred, the requested deduction cannot be applied.