Is alimony deducted from travel expenses and daily allowances?

Author of the article: Anastasia Ivanova Last modified: January 2020 3713

The law requires financial support for minor children. In the event of divorce, one of the parents is obligated to pay child support. According to the Family Code, collection of funds under a writ of execution occurs from all official sources of income. Consider in more detail whether it is possible to withhold alimony from travel money.

Legislative norms

The grounds for paying alimony and the procedure for collecting funds are determined by regulations. These include:

1. Family code. This document contains information about the categories of citizens who can count on receiving alimony. It determines the collection procedure and methods of withholding funds.
2. Government Decree No. 841. The act contains a list of all types of income of a citizen. It indicates from which funds alimony can be written off and from which funds it cannot.
3. Federal Law on Enforcement Proceedings. Describes the procedure for forced collection of money from alimony defaulter. Defines the types of property that can be seized by bailiffs in order to pay off debts to a child.

Expert commentary

Leonov Victor

Lawyer

When going on a work trip, a citizen can count on compensation for daily expenses for staying at the place of business trip. The Labor Code of the Russian Federation and Government Decree No. 749 determine the procedure for paying funds.

These acts state:

• The organization is obliged to reimburse the employee for food, accommodation and travel expenses upon presentation of checks, invoices and receipts;
• If an employee is on a business trip on weekends or public holidays, he can claim not only his average daily earnings, but also double payment of daily allowance.

The concept of “business trip expenses” includes additional costs for:

• Transport insurance;
• Baggage transportation;
• Services of service centers;
• Pay for cellular communications during a work trip.

Travel payments consist of two parts:

1. Cash to reimburse travel expenses;
2. Average daily wage of an employee.

Regulatory regulation

To find out whether alimony is deducted from travel allowances, you need to find out in what order funds are paid for a dependent. Let's take a closer look.

Let's consider whether alimony is paid on business trips. First, you need to determine on the basis of which regulations payments are made. Among them:

1. Family code. The obligation to provide financial support for disabled and minor relatives is established by family law. The Code contains information about persons who have the right to claim funds for maintenance, collection procedures, and types of withholding.
2. Government Decree No. 841 of 1996. The regulatory act contains a detailed list of citizens’ incomes from which payments for material support are forcibly withheld. In addition, the document includes a list of funds from which alimony is not calculated.
3. Federal Law on enforcement proceedings. The regulatory act includes the procedure for forced collection of financial support for minors and disabled relatives. It contains information about income from which funds are not withheld. The document includes information about the property that is subject to foreclosure if the citizen does not have sufficient income.

Procedure for withholding material support

Financial support for minors or disabled relatives should be paid by relatives on a voluntary basis. The obligation to provide financial assistance is established by law. The parent living separately from the child must contribute to the expenses of the minor. Moreover, a full list of expenses is taken into account (food, clothing, shoes, treatment, recreation, education).

The adult child must provide financial support to meet the parent's basic needs. The minimum level of support is the provision of funds for food, clothing, treatment, in an amount exceeding the parent’s income. When providing for mom and dad, the financial capabilities of the child are important.

If a citizen refuses to fulfill his duties independently, or if the recipient demands to increase the payment amount, the parties resolve the issue as follows:

• through the conclusion of a notarial agreement;
• through the court.

To formalize the contract, mutual consent of the parties is required. It is drawn up in the form of a written document certified by a notary. The agreement begins to be valid from the date of its notarization. The terms of the document include the procedure and type of payment. The agreement is an official document. If one of the parties violates the terms, then the person whose interests are violated has the right to submit it for forced execution, by analogy with a writ of execution.

If the conclusion of an agreement is impossible due to conflicting relations between the parties, then material security is collected through the court. The priority option is to appeal to the Magistrates' Court. The order is issued 15 days from the date of application.

If there are other disputes between the parties in the field of family law (establishing paternity, determining the child’s place of residence), it is necessary to contact the district/city court. The consideration period increases significantly and depends on the resolution of the main issue. Based on the court decision, a writ of execution is issued.

Attention! Enforcement documents (court order, writ of execution) are sent for forced execution to the FSSP at the request of the plaintiff. Payment of alimony begins 1-2 months after the documents are submitted to the bailiffs.

Types of retention of material support

To determine whether alimony is taken from travel allowances, it is necessary to find out the type of collection. The law provides the following options:

• fixed amount;
• percentage (calculated based on all types of income).

Financial support in the form of a fixed amount is established to provide for all relatives, except for minor children. For them, this option is used in exceptional cases. To determine the payment amount, it is necessary to calculate how much money the recipient needs to meet his needs, pay for utilities and treatment. The applicant must prove his expenses with documentary evidence. The court has the right to reduce the requested amount.

When paying material security based on an agreement, the priority option is payment in the form of a fixed amount. Since a citizen independently and voluntarily makes payments, making calculations in the form of a percentage is complex and impractical.

If the payer is an official income (salary, remuneration, pension), then financial support for the child will be collected in court in the form of a percentage. When making calculations, the absolute majority of income will be taken into account. However, Government Resolution No. 841 establishes a list of citizen incomes that are not subject to accounting when calculating alimony payments.

From what income is alimony withheld?

The Family Law does not contain detailed information about exactly what income parents pay child support from. For this reason, in 1996, Government Decree No. 841 was issued, explaining the procedure for withholding funds.

In addition to official wages, payments are collected from:

• Increase in salary;
• Payments for overtime working hours;
• Payments for work under special conditions;
• Bonus money;
• Royalties;
• Pension payments;
• Scholarships;
• Unemployment benefits;
• Business income;
• Profits from the rental of various objects;
• Profits from transactions.

Important! The employee's average daily wage is maintained and continues to accrue while on a business trip. It is this income that is subject to alimony deduction. It is prohibited to withhold alimony from other compensation payments.

The employer calculates the amount that the employee can spend per day and reimburses it. The Labor Code defines the minimum amount of daily allowance paid by state and budget organizations. Private firms can set travel allowances on their own. Even if these payments are greater than those specified in the law, alimony cannot be withheld from them either.

An exception is some payments from the employer made during a work trip. For example, an employee was awarded a bonus for a productive business trip. This remuneration can be used as income subject to child support.

Expert commentary

Gorchakov Vladimir

Lawyer

Other social payments, such as material assistance, are not included in the alimony base and are not funds from which payment can be withheld.

Final part

Based on all of the above, we can draw the following conclusions:

1. Alimony is not accrued from travel allowances, since they cannot be considered the income of the payer.
2. When calculating alimony, the salary of the alimony provider and his bonuses will be taken into account.
3. Before alimony payments are made, income tax is deducted from the total amount.

It must be admitted that the compilers of the list of financial income from which alimony payments are made have done a great deal of work, which has made it logical and understandable. Reading it, you understand that its developers were guided not only by legal theory, but also took into account everyday experience.

Procedure for collecting alimony payments

The recipient can accurately calculate the balance of alimony payments, knowing that they are not withheld from travel money.
If the payer’s work involves frequent travel, they are interested in the procedure for collecting benefits. The child's parent files an application to the court to recover money from the child's ex-spouse or father. During the hearing, the court makes a decision on alimony. After the decision comes into force, the writ of execution will be sent to the head of the enterprise where the alimony payer works. Statement of claim for collection of child support (sample)

Withholding of funds occurs once a month, after deducting 13% personal income tax from wages. Alimony can be deducted from advance payments if this income is the only one for the current month. The amount of payment is set by the court and cannot be changed at the request of the payer. Most often this is a certain percentage of earnings.

The recipient does not need to submit an additional application to the payer’s employer; alimony for a business trip month is calculated independently by the accounting department. Money can be collected from the company's cash desk, but in most cases the accountant sends it to the card. The transfer is carried out within three working days from the moment the payer receives the salary.

Child support calculator

Amount of children:

Second parent's salary:

Deduct personal income tax from salary:

Result: rub.

Determination of travel allowances (daily allowances)

Content

According to paragraph 1 of Art. 168 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, per diem means additional expenses of an employee of an organization associated with his temporary residence outside the territory of permanent residence. This definition means that the employee receives funds to purchase necessary household products for comfortable living outside his home, including expenses for food and hygiene items.

The employer must reimburse the posted employee for the following expenses:

• expenses associated with the transport movement of a citizen in the territory of another locality, including payment for a taxi, travel on an intracity bus, costs of flights and trips by rail;
• funds spent by an employee of an organization on renting accommodation if he is staying in a hotel or apartment;
• daily allowance, which implies actual expenses for a comfortable life outside the city of permanent residence;
• other expenses made by a citizen with the notification and permission of the employer.

Payments are made for each working day of the employee. An employer can independently allocate a set amount to reward an employee of the enterprise if he has shown high productivity or worked beyond the established schedule.

Is alimony deducted from travel expenses?

Daily allowances are not a source of income for an employee, since they are aimed at ensuring the standard of living necessary for him outside his actual place of residence. In accordance with Resolution No. 841, alimony payments should not be withheld from funds allocated by the employer to the employee for residence within another region if it is necessary to perform work duties there.

When is alimony deducted from business trips?

There is a possibility of receiving alimony payments from travel money. This is possible if a voluntary agreement is concluded between the child’s parents. This document defines the fixed amount of payments and the procedure for their payment. In such a situation, the payer himself can determine what funds will be used to pay financial assistance to the child. At the discretion of the father, the amount of alimony can be increased at the expense of daily allowances.

Termination of alimony payments

Suspension of alimony payments from all types of income occurs if:

• The child is 18 years old;
• The child to whom child support was paid was adopted by another family;
• The recipient of alimony has acquired legal capacity;
• The spouse receiving disability benefits has entered into a new marriage;
• The recipient or payer of alimony has died.

A person who is paid financial assistance can independently refuse it. The procedure is simplified if a voluntary agreement has been concluded between the parties. If the issue of collecting alimony was decided in court, then the cancellation of this decision must take place in court.

Agreement on payment of alimony (sample)

Eventually

Dependent support funds must be withheld. Only deductions are made not from the entire amount of payments, but from part of it. Only from the part that is the income of the alimony provider.

Therefore, the organization’s accountant must carry out the following actions:

1. Set the amount on which taxes must be paid.
2. Withhold taxes.
3. Calculate the amount of income of the alimony payer.
4. Withhold money for child support from this amount.

It is worth emphasizing once again that the legislation on the issue of payments in the interests of a minor or other dependent from travel funds is quite logical. Each position is justified based on the theory of law and ordinary everyday logic. If you have income related to work, then you need to pay; if expenses are compensated, then you don’t need to pay anything to anyone.

Withholding of alimony from daily compensation payments

Alimony payments are funds that are used to support children under the age of majority. They are also paid to disabled dependents.

Based on current legislation, these payments are subject to monthly withholding. In addition to the income from which deduction is made, there are also cash receipts that are not used for alimony payments.

These include various compensation payments established by law. For example, they include travel payments, as well as various charges associated with sending a citizen to work in another city or region. Daily income is also included in compensation payments.

Employees sent on a business trip must be reimbursed for the following expenses:

• money spent on purchasing round-trip tickets and travel to the place of business trip;
• expenses for rented housing or a hotel room;
• daily additional expenses associated with living outside your permanent place of residence;
• money that was spent on purchasing food during the trip;
• other expenses agreed with the employer.

It should be noted that each company sets the amount of daily expenses differently. This amount is specified in the employment contract.

It is important to know! It should be noted that daily expenses are classified as compensation payments, so alimony from business trips cannot be withheld in this case.