UO Travel Policy for American English Institute – Aug. 25, 2017

IRS Accountable Plan – Allows UO to pay travel reimbursements with no tax implications to the traveler – tax free Must be a business purpose for the travel that shows clear benefit to the UO Must be accompanied by documentary evidence – Receipts showing payment by the payee Event documentation – agenda, invitation, research log, trip diary Must be submitted within 60 days of travel If expenses do not follow Accountable Plan, they cannot be reimbursed with stateside funds as a travel reimbursement. If paid, the payment is processed by Payroll as taxable income.

Business Purpose: In order for the reimbursement to be claimed as a non-taxable payment, the business purpose must clearly demonstrate benefit to the UO. Provide enough detail to explain the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How of the travel. The duckweb form often tells us who, when, where and how….the business purpose must explain What, Why. Conference information plus agenda for the date range Program description on UO webpage, print and include Traveler profile from UO directory to explain research or field of study Spell out Acronyms

Common Issues that Slow Down Travel Reimbursements Incomplete Business Purpose – who, what, when, where, why and how Conference - Missing agenda, missing hotel pricing info Receipt errors Doesn’t show payment Incorrect name Credit card slip or credit card statement instead of itemized receipt Foreign without translation Form Errors Too many/few nights lodging Incorrect dates Incorrect amounts Required receipts not included Receipts included and not on form Wrong account code Incorrect or missing airfare comparison for personal time or indirect route Signatures: missing, pencil signatures, not original traveler signature, invalid departmental authorization

UO Travel Policy updates (Policy to be formally announced soon) No Direct Route requirement for airfare Tips on taxi no longer considered an “Incidental” expense, allowed at 15% state standard More flexibility in IRS lodging per diem reimbursement, if amount is reasonable and traveler’s supervisor is willing to extend overage.  More flexibility in IRS High City locales Justification not required to take rental car over taxi/shuttle Meal per diem – travel days meal per diem is paid at 75% of full rate

Pending: Due to Banner upgrade to be completed by next summer, Duckweb Travel Reimbursement form will no longer be a supported platform. New: Concur – a cloud based, service software solution that will allow us to provide UO with: Pre-Travel Request Travel Booking tool (pending) Travel Expense processing Risk Management P-Card Expense Processing TripIt Pro - Itinerary management during the trip (pending)…

Questions?