Compensation of expenses of remote acting employees: tax treatment

LEGAL DIGEST, NEWS \ 08.02.2022

The Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation has issued an explanation determining the procedure for taxation of compensation for the use of personal and rented property by remote acting employees in their work.

Letter No. 03-04-06/263 dated January 11, 2022 states that a remote employee has the right, with the consent or knowledge of the employer and in their interests:

• to use equipment, software and hardware tools, and information security tools owned by an employee or leased by him or her to perform a job function
• as well as to pay compensation for the use of such equipment and software and hardware in order to reimburse the corresponding expenses.

In this case, expenses are understood as the costs associated with the use of computer equipment (printers, scanners, notebook computers, desktop computers and all-in-one PCc), the Internet, mobile communications, electricity, consumables (stationery), etc.

The basis for payment of compensation for expenses incurred is an internal regulatory document of the company, an employment contract with an employee or an additional agreement to the contract. At the same time, the amount of reimbursable expenses:

• is not subject to income tax, since in accordance with clause 1 of article 217 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, all types of compensation expenses are not subject to this tax;
• is not subject to insurance premiums, since the specified payment is compensatory and is associated with the performance of the employee’s work duties (sub-clause 2, clause 1, article 422 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation);
• can be taken into account for profit tax purposes if such costs are justified, documented and associated with the performance of the employee’s work function.

Please be reminded that earlier, the bodies of the Ministry of Finance in their Letters No. 03-04-06/96913 dated November 6, 2020 and No. 03-03-06/1/6672 dated February 4, 2020 expressed a similar opinion. For more information about the procedure for determining the amount and documenting the compensation of remote acting employees, see this article.

In the matters of the organization of labour of remote acting employees and the procedure for registration of appropriate compensation payments, please contact Acsour experts.