Expenses incurred by the company for traveling employees are taxable

Published in Sole24Ore – Nt Lavoro – on 03/09/2025

Published in Sole24Ore – Nt Lavoro – on 03/09/2025

A company appealed against the judgment rejecting its appeal against the assessment report contesting the failure to pay contributions linked to the non-inclusion, in the remuneration amount used to calculate contributions, of the expenses incurred by the employer for employees on secondment, which are instead to be considered fully taxable, because the regime provided for in Article 51, paragraph 6, of the Consolidated Income Tax Law (Tuir) is alternative to the regime in paragraph 5.

For the company, the Bologna Court of Appeal did not consider that the expenses relating to the travel costs of the workers were incurred directly by the company and should therefore be excluded from the taxable income.

The Supreme Court, as a preliminary matter, refers to Article 51 of the Italian Tax Code, recalling that allowances received for travel outside the municipal territory contribute to forming income for the part exceeding €46.48, net of travel and transport expenses (paragraph 5), while allowances payable to regular travelers contribute to income in the amount of 50% of their total (paragraph 6).

In this regard, the Court of Cassation also refers to the authentic interpretation rule (Article 7-quinquies of Decree Law 193/2016), according to which workers for whom

Based on this provision, workers to whom paragraph 6 does not apply due to the absence of one of the aforementioned conditions are entitled to the treatment provided for travel allowances in paragraph 5 of Article 51 of the Italian Tax Code (Tuir).

The Court of Appeal considered that the conditions for the application of the authentic interpretation rule were clearly met, with the consequent applicability of the provisions of paragraph 6 to the appellant's employees. However, the Court pointed out that this provision does not provide for further exclusions from the calculation of remuneration, such as those provided for in Article 51(5) for travel expenses.

Therefore, "expenses related to travel and mileage allowances, which customarily constitute one of the two components of travel allowances and contribute to forming income as also emerges from Article 51, paragraph 5, of the Italian Tax Code, which provides for their non-computability only under certain conditions, must be included in full in the calculation basis for the contributions to be paid, given that the specific rules governing travelling workers do not provide for their exclusion, even in part."

The Court of Cassation agrees with the reasoning of the Court of Appeal, noting that the two regimes provided for in paragraphs 5 and 6 govern two different work situations in terms of characteristics, conditions and type of allowance, which justify the different tax and contribution regimes: in the case of business trips, the allowance is paid only when the trip takes place, varies according to the location and duration, and is calculated only above a certain daily limit, which is reduced if board and/or lodging expenses are also covered, while in the case of transferism, the allowance is fixed and paid even if the worker has not actually travelled.

For these reasons, the Court dismisses the appeal and upholds the contested judgment.