personal travel definition

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International Safety and Security’s interest regarding travel abroad is not limited solely to university-related travel. We value all members of our university community and want you to enjoy safe and productive travel abroad, whatever the reason for the trip. While International Safety and Security cannot assume responsibility or liability for any advice related to personal travel, we encourage travelers to explore the resources on our website and are available for consultations on personal travel.

Definition of Personal Travel

Personal travel is travel abroad for personal reasons not associated with employment or education abroad activities with the university.

Travel before or after education abroad programs for sightseeing, visiting friends or family, or other interests is considered personal travel. The university, its agents, and its education abroad program are not responsible or liable for any occurrences during such travel. Students participating in personal travel are strongly encouraged to purchase additional travel insurance to cover those periods.

General Travel Tips

Disclaimer : International Safety and Security provides the following links for informational purposes only. However, we cannot guarantee the accuracy of the information contained in the linked websites and do not specifically endorse any organization, information, or products associated with those websites. We encourage travelers to consult multiple sources to make informed decisions.

Travel Informed

Travelers, either novice or intrepid trekkers, should research destination information prior to booking and departing for international locations. It is critical to understand current events, culture, geography, and even the history of the country and region. Travelers should not assume that conditions remain static in foreign countries. Here are some resources to help inform travelers.

• U.S. Department of State (DoS) Travel Website. This website contains links for information regarding passports and visas, specific countries, travel tips, emergency information, and more.
• DoS Traveler’s Checklist Website. This website provides more concise information regarding preparing to travel overseas. It is reachable from the Travel website above.
• DoS Country Specific Information Website. This U.S. government website contains specific information for every country. It has been re-formatted in 2018 to make the information and advice easier to understand.
• DoS Travel to High Risk Areas Website. This U.S. government website provides ideas related to remaining safe while traveling to areas of higher risk. We recommend reviewing the Further Readings section at the bottom of the website for ways to reduce susceptibility to crime.
• Centers for Disease Control Traveler’s Health Website. This U.S. government website provides information related to vaccines, medicines, and general advice on health while traveling. Travelers can select specific countries to be visited, as well as special considerations based on their situation. The TravWell App can be beneficial for understanding country requirements.
• United Kingdom Foreign Travel Advice Website. This U.K. government website provides specific travel information for countries. Similar to the U.S. Department of State website, we encourage travelers to consult this website as a means to be more informed.
• The American Red Cross Website provides a number of Apps for Apple and Android phones that may be helpful in the event of an emergency.

Stay Informed

It is important to remain informed during travel. The best method to do so is registering in the U.S. Department of State Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) . The benefits of STEP include:

• Receive important information from the Embassy about safety conditions in your destination country, helping you make informed decisions about your travel plans.
• Help the U.S. Embassy contact you in an emergency, whether natural disaster, civil unrest, or family emergency.
• Help family and friends get in touch with you in an emergency.

Have a Plan

We encourage you to plan for the following critical element of travel abroad.

• Communication. Establish a plan for communicating with friends and family prior to departure and inform them ahead of time if you know you will deviate from the plan. Check with your cell phone provider to determine if your plan will work abroad and how much it will cost. Consider buying or renting an unlocked phone that can be used overseas and purchasing a local sim card upon arrival. Verify if your lodging provides internet access, particularly if you plan on relying on Wi-Fi.
• Money. Plan for how you will access money while abroad. Financial institutions in many countries no longer accept traveler’s checks. If ATMs are available, U.S. credit cards (Visa and MasterCard) will work in many countries, but fraud is always a risk. Before travel, alert your bank and/or credit card companies that you will be abroad; banks may freeze your account or lock your card if they do not know that you are traveling overseas. Finally, you should research exchange rates and inquire about credit card fees abroad.
• Itinerary changes. Know how you will make itinerary changes if required. Does your ticket allow for changes? Can you contact your travel agent or the parent company after office hours to make changes? If you must make changes using a local agent, how will you pay?
• Medical care. Research how you will receive medical care if required. How will you find the nearest hospital or specialty provider? Most international health care facilities will not accept U.S. domestic health insurance, even if the insurance provides coverage. The insurance will not usually cover medical evacuation costs if required. You should inquire with your provider regarding policy benefits and coverage amounts. We strongly encourage all travelers to purchase a comprehensive international travel and health policy prior to departure (see next section).

Purchase International Insurance

We strongly encourage all travelers to purchase a comprehensive international travel and health insurance policy. However, International Safety and Security does not endorse any particular insurance company or product. Travelers should research companies and read policies very carefully to make an informed choice.

The U.S. Department of State Insurance Providers for Overseas Coverage website lists various insurance companies providing coverage for international travel. Travelers should look for policies with options to cover:

• Health and medications;
• Medical evacuation and repatriation;
• Trip interruption;
• Security evacuation;
• Personal property loss or damage, and
• High-risk or adventure activities.

An option to consider is leisure travel insurance .

Consultations

As time permits, our staff are willing to provide informal consultations regarding personal travel abroad.

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• THE BIG IDEA

Why travel should be considered an essential human activity

Travel is not rational, but it’s in our genes. Here’s why you should start planning a trip now.

In 1961, legendary National Geographic photographer Volkmar Wentzel captured two women gazing at the surf off Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia. This and all the other images in this story come from the National Geographic image collection.

I’ve been putting my passport to good use lately. I use it as a coaster and to level wobbly table legs. It makes an excellent cat toy.

Welcome to the pandemic of disappointments. Canceled trips, or ones never planned lest they be canceled. Family reunions, study-abroad years, lazy beach vacations. Poof. Gone. Obliterated by a tiny virus, and the long list of countries where United States passports are not welcome.

Only a third of Americans say they have traveled overnight for leisure since March, and only slightly more, 38 percent, say they are likely to do so by the end of the year, according to one report. Only a quarter of us plan on leaving home for Thanksgiving, typically the busiest travel time. The numbers paint a grim picture of our stilled lives.

It is not natural for us to be this sedentary. Travel is in our genes. For most of the time our species has existed, “we’ve lived as nomadic hunter-gatherers moving about in small bands of 150 or fewer people,” writes Christopher Ryan in Civilized to Death . This nomadic life was no accident. It was useful. “Moving to a neighboring band is always an option to avoid brewing conflict or just for a change in social scenery,” says Ryan. Robert Louis Stevenson put it more succinctly: “The great affair is to move.”

What if we can’t move, though? What if we’re unable to hunt or gather? What’s a traveler to do? There are many ways to answer that question. “Despair,” though, is not one of them.

In this aerial view from 1967, wall-to-wall seaside sunbathers relax under umbrellas or on beach towels in Ocean City, Maryland .

A 1967 fall festival in Guadalajara, Mexico , starred traditionally costumed musicians and dancers.

We are an adaptive species. We can tolerate brief periods of forced sedentariness. A dash of self-delusion helps. We’re not grounded, we tell ourselves. We’re merely between trips, like the unemployed salesman in between opportunities. We pass the days thumbing though old travel journals and Instagram feeds. We gaze at souvenirs. All this helps. For a while.

We put on brave faces. “Staycation Nation,” the cover of the current issue of Canadian Traveller magazine declares cheerfully, as if it were a choice, not a consolation.

Today, the U.S. Travel Association, the industry trade organization, is launching a national recovery campaign called “ Let’s Go There .” Backed by a coalition of businesses related to tourism—hotels, convention and visitor bureaus, airlines—the initiative’s goal is to encourage Americans to turn idle wanderlust into actual itineraries.

The travel industry is hurting. So are travelers. “I dwelled so much on my disappointment that it almost physically hurt,” Paris -based journalist Joelle Diderich told me recently, after canceling five trips last spring.

(Related: How hard has the coronavirus hit the travel industry? These charts tell us.)

My friend James Hopkins is a Buddhist living in Kathmandu . You’d think he’d thrive during the lockdown, a sort-of mandatory meditation retreat. For a while he did.

But during a recent Skype call, James looked haggard and dejected. He was growing restless, he confessed, and longed “for the old 10-countries-a-year schedule.” Nothing seemed to help, he told me. “No matter how many candles I lit, or how much incense I burned, and in spite of living in one of the most sacred places in South Asia, I just couldn’t change my habits.”

When we ended our call, I felt relieved, my grumpiness validated. It’s not me; it’s the pandemic. But I also worried. If a Buddhist in Kathmandu is going nuts, what hope do the rest of us stilled souls have?

I think hope lies in the very nature of travel. Travel entails wishful thinking. It demands a leap of faith, and of imagination, to board a plane for some faraway land, hoping, wishing, for a taste of the ineffable. Travel is one of the few activities we engage in not knowing the outcome and reveling in that uncertainty. Nothing is more forgettable than the trip that goes exactly as planned.

Related: Vintage photos of the glamour of travel

Travel is not a rational activity. It makes no sense to squeeze yourself into an alleged seat only to be hurled at frightening speed to a distant place where you don’t speak the language or know the customs. All at great expense. If we stopped to do the cost-benefit analysis, we’d never go anywhere. Yet we do.

That’s one reason why I’m bullish on travel’s future. In fact, I’d argue travel is an essential industry, an essential activity. It’s not essential the way hospitals and grocery stores are essential. Travel is essential the way books and hugs are essential. Food for the soul. Right now, we’re between courses, savoring where we’ve been, anticipating where we’ll go. Maybe it’s Zanzibar and maybe it’s the campground down the road that you’ve always wanted to visit.

(Related: Going camping this fall? Here’s how to get started.)

James Oglethorpe, a seasoned traveler, is happy to sit still for a while, and gaze at “the slow change of light and clouds on the Blue Ridge Mountains” in Virginia, where he lives. “My mind can take me the rest of the way around this world and beyond it.”

It’s not the place that is special but what we bring to it and, crucially, how we interact with it. Travel is not about the destination, or the journey. It is about stumbling across “a new way of looking at things,” as writer Henry Miller observed. We need not travel far to gain a fresh perspective.

No one knew this better than Henry David Thoreau , who lived nearly all of his too-short life in Concord, Massachusetts. There he observed Walden Pond from every conceivable vantage point: from a hilltop, on its shores, underwater. Sometimes he’d even bend over and peer through his legs, marveling at the inverted world. “From the right point of view, every storm and every drop in it is a rainbow,” he wrote.

Thoreau never tired of gazing at his beloved pond, nor have we outgrown the quiet beauty of our frumpy, analog world. If anything, the pandemic has rekindled our affection for it. We’ve seen what an atomized, digital existence looks like, and we (most of us anyway) don’t care for it. The bleachers at Chicago ’s Wrigley Field; the orchestra section at New York City ’s Lincoln Center; the alleyways of Tokyo . We miss these places. We are creatures of place, and always will be.

After the attacks of September 11, many predicted the end of air travel, or at least a dramatic reduction. Yet the airlines rebounded steadily and by 2017 flew a record four billion passengers. Briefly deprived of the miracle of flight, we appreciated it more and today tolerate the inconvenience of body scans and pat-downs for the privilege of transporting our flesh-and-bone selves to far-flung locations, where we break bread with other incarnate beings.

Landscape architects work in their Rio de Janeiro, Brazil , studio in 1955.

A tourist photographs a towering century plant in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, in 1956.

In our rush to return to the world, we should be mindful of the impact of mass tourism on the planet. Now is the time to embrace the fundamental values of sustainable tourism and let them guide your future journeys. Go off the beaten path. Linger longer in destinations. Travel in the off-season. Connect with communities and spend your money in ways that support locals. Consider purchasing carbon offsets. And remember that the whole point of getting out there is to embrace the differences that make the world so colorful.

“One of the great benefits of travel is meeting new people and coming into contact with different points of view,” says Pauline Frommer, travel expert and radio host.

So go ahead and plan that trip. It’s good for you, scientists say . Plotting a trip is nearly as enjoyable as actually taking one. Merely thinking about a pleasurable experience is itself pleasurable. Anticipation is its own reward.

I’ve witnessed first-hand the frisson of anticipatory travel. My wife, not usually a fan of travel photography, now spends hours on Instagram, gazing longingly at photos of Alpine lodges and Balinese rice fields. “What’s going on?” I asked one day. “They’re just absolutely captivating,” she replied. “They make me remember that there is a big, beautiful world out there.”

Many of us, myself included, have taken travel for granted. We grew lazy and entitled, and that is never good. Tom Swick, a friend and travel writer, tells me he used to view travel as a given. Now, he says, “I look forward to experiencing it as a gift.”

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UN Tourism | Bringing the world closer

UN standards for measuring tourism

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Glossary of tourism terms

Tourism is a social, cultural and economic phenomenon which entails the movement of people to countries or places outside their usual environment for personal or business/professional purposes. These people are called visitors (which may be either tourists or excursionists; residents or non-residents) and tourism has to do with their activities, some of which involve tourism expenditure.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

Activity/activities : In tourism statistics, the term activities represent the actions and behaviors of people in preparation for and during a trip in their capacity as consumers ( IRTS 2008, 1.2 ).

Activity (principal): The principal activity of a producer unit is the activity whose value added exceeds that of any other activity carried out within the same unit ( SNA 2008, 5.8 ).

Activity (productive): The (productive) activity carried out by a statistical unit is the type of production in which it engages. It has to be understood as a process, i.e. the combination of actions that result in a certain set of products. The classification of productive activities is determined by their principal output.

Administrative data : Administrative data is the set of units and data derived from an administrative source. This is a data holding information collected and maintained for the purpose of implementing one or more administrative regulations.

Adventure tourism : Adventure tourism is a type of tourism which usually takes place in destinations with specific geographic features and landscape and tends to be associated with a physical activity, cultural exchange, interaction and engagement with nature. This experience may involve some kind of real or perceived risk and may require significant physical and/or mental effort. Adventure tourism generally includes outdoor activities such as mountaineering, trekking, bungee jumping, rock climbing, rafting, canoeing, kayaking, canyoning, mountain biking, bush walking, scuba diving. Likewise, some indoor adventure tourism activities may also be practiced.

Aggregated data : The result of transforming unit level data into quantitative measures for a set of characteristics of a population.

Aggregation : A process that transforms microdata into aggregate-level information by using an aggregation function such as count, sum average, standard deviation, etc.

Analytical unit : Entity created by statisticians, by splitting or combining observation units with the help of estimations and imputations.

Balance of payments : The balance of payments is a statistical statement that summarizes transactions between residents and non-residents during a period. It consists of the goods and services account, the primary income account, the secondary income account, the capital account, and the financial account ( BPM6, 2.12 ).

Bias : An effect which deprives a statistical result of representativeness by systematically distorting it, as distinct from a random error which may distort on any one occasion but balances out on the average.

Business and professional purpose (of a tourism trip): The business and professional purpose of a tourism trip includes the activities of the self-employed and employees, as long as they do not correspond to an implicit or explicit employer-employee relationship with a resident producer in the country or place visited, those of investors, businessmen, etc. ( IRTS 2008, 3.17.2 ).

Business tourism : Business tourism is a type of tourism activity in which visitors travel for a specific professional and/or business purpose to a place outside their workplace and residence with the aim of attending a meeting, an activity or an event. The key components of business tourism are meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions. The term "meetings industry" within the context of business tourism recognizes the industrial nature of such activities. Business tourism can be combined with any other tourism type during the same trip.

Business visitor : A business visitor is a visitor whose main purpose for a tourism trip corresponds to the business and professional category of purpose ( IRTS 2008, 3.17.2 ).

Central Product Classification : The Central Product Classification (CPC) constitutes a complete product classification covering goods and services. It is intended to serve as an international standard for assembling and tabulating all kinds of data requiring product detail, including industrial production, national accounts, service industries, domestic and foreign commodity trade, international trade in services, balance of payments, consumption and price statistics. Other basic aims are to provide a framework for international comparison and promote harmonization of various types of statistics dealing with goods and services.

Census : A census is the complete enumeration of a population or groups at a point in time with respect to well defined characteristics: for example, Population, Production, Traffic on particular roads.

Coastal, maritime and inland water tourism : Coastal tourism refers to land-based tourism activities such as swimming, surfing, sunbathing and other coastal leisure, recreation and sports activities which take place on the shore of a sea, lake or river. Proximity to the coast is also a condition for services and facilities that support coastal tourism. Maritime tourism refers to sea-based activities such as cruising, yachting, boating and nautical sports and includes their respective land-based services and infrastructure. Inland water tourism refers to tourism activities such as cruising, yachting, boating and nautical sports which take place in aquatic- influenced environments located within land boundaries and include lakes, rivers, ponds, streams, groundwater, springs, cave waters and others traditionally grouped as inland wetlands.

Coherence : Adequacy of statistics to be combined in different ways and for various uses.

Competitiveness of a tourism destination : The competitiveness of a tourism destination is the ability of the destination to use its natural, cultural, human, man-made and capital resources efficiently to develop and deliver quality, innovative, ethical and attractive tourism products and services in order to achieve a sustainable growth within its overall vision and strategic goals, increase the added value of the tourism sector, improve and diversify its market components and optimize its attractiveness and benefits both for visitors and the local community in a sustainable perspective.

Consistency : Logical and numerical coherence.

Country of reference : The country of reference refers to the country for which the measurement is done. ( IRTS 2008, 2.15 ).

Country of residence : The country of residence of a household is determined according to the centre of predominant economic interest of its members. If a person resides (or intends to reside) for more than one year in a given country and has there his/her centre of economic interest (for example, where the predominant amount of time is spent), he/she is considered as a resident of this country.

Country-specific tourism characteristic products and activities : To be determined by each country by applying the criteria of IRTS 2008, 5.10 in their own context; for these products, the activities producing them will be considered as tourism characteristic, and the industries in which the principal activity is tourism-characteristic will be called tourism industries ( IRTS 2008, 5.16 ).

Cultural tourism : Cultural tourism is a type of tourism activity in which the visitor's essential motivation is to learn, discover, experience and consume the tangible and intangible cultural attractions/products in a tourism destination. These attractions/products relate to a set of distinctive material, intellectual, spiritual and emotional features of a society that encompasses arts and architecture, historical and cultural heritage, culinary heritage, literature, music, creative industries and the living cultures with their lifestyles, value systems, beliefs and traditions.

Data checking : Activity whereby the correctness conditions of the data are verified. It also includes the specification of the type of error or of the condition not met, and the qualification of the data and their division into "error-free data" and "erroneous data".

Data collection : Systematic process of gathering data for official statistics.

Data compilation : Operations performed on data to derive new information according to a given set of rules.

Data confrontation : The process of comparing data that has generally been derived from different surveys or other sources, especially those of different frequencies, in order to assess and possibly improve their coherency, and identify the reasons for any differences.

Data processing : Data processing is the operation performed on data by the organization, institute, agency, etc., responsible for undertaking the collection, tabulation, manipulation and preparation of data and metadata output.

Data reconciliation : The process of adjusting data derived from two different sources to remove, or at least reduce, the impact of differences identified.

Destination (main destination of a trip): The main destination of a tourism trip is defined as the place visited that is central to the decision to take the trip. See also purpose of a tourism trip ( IRTS 2008, 2.31 ).

Destination management / marketing organization (DMO) : A destination management/marketing organization (DMO) is the leading organizational entity which may encompass the various authorities, stakeholders and professionals and facilitates tourism sector partnerships towards a collective destination vision. The governance structures of DMOs vary from a single public authority to a public/ private partnership model with the key role of initiating, coordinating and managing certain activities such as implementation of tourism policies, strategic planning, product development, promotion and marketing and convention bureau activities. The functions of the DMOs may vary from national to regional and local levels depending on the current and potential needs as well as on the decentralization level of public administration. Not every tourism destination has a DMO.

Documentation: Processes and procedures for imputation,  weighting,  confidentiality  and suppression rules, outlier treatment and data capture should be fully documented by the  survey provider.  Such documentation should be made available to at least  the body financing the survey.

Domestic tourism : Domestic tourism comprises the activities of a resident visitor within the country of reference, either as part of a domestic tourism trip or part of an outbound tourism trip ( IRTS 2008, 2.39 ).

Domestic tourism consumption : Domestic tourism consumption is the tourism consumption of a resident visitor within the economy of reference ( TSA:RMF 2008, figure 2.1 ).

Domestic tourism expenditure : Domestic tourism expenditure is the tourism expenditure of a resident visitor within the economy of reference, (IRTS 2008, 4.15(a)).

Domestic tourism trip : A domestic tourism trip is one with a main destination within the country of residence of the visitor (IRTS 2008, 2.32).

Domestic visitor : As a visitor travels within his/her country of residence, he/she is a domestic visitor and his/her activities are part of domestic tourism.

Durable consumer goods : Durable consumer goods are goods that may be used repeatedly or continuously over a period of a year or more, assuming a normal or average rate of physical usage. When acquired by producers, these are considered to be capital goods used for production processes, as is the case of vehicles, computers, etc. When acquired by households, they are considered to be consumer durable goods ( TSA:RMF 2008, 2.39 ). This definition is identical to the definition of SNA 2008, 9.42 : A consumer durable is a goodthat may be used for purposes of consumption repeatedly or continuously over a period of a year or more.

Dwellings : Each household has a principal dwelling (sometimes also designated as main or primary home), usually defined with reference to time spent there, whose location defines the country of residence and place of usual residence of this household and of all its members. All other dwellings (owned or leased by the household) are considered secondary dwellings ( IRTS 2008, 2.26 ).

Ecotourism : Ecotourism is a type of nature-based tourism activity in which the visitor's essential motivation is to observe, learn, discover, experience and appreciate biological and cultural diversity with a responsible attitude to protect the integrity of the ecosystem and enhance the well-being of the local community. Ecotourism increases awareness towards the conservation of biodiversity, natural environment and cultural assets both among locals and the visitors and requires special management processes to minimize the negative impact on the ecosystem.

Economic analysis : Tourism generates directly and indirectly an increase in economic activity in the places visited (and beyond), mainly due to demand for goods and services thatneed to be produced and provided. In the economic analysis of tourism, one may distinguish between tourism's 'economic contribution' which refers to the direct effect of tourism and is measurable by means of the TSA, and tourism's 'economic impact' which is a much broader concept encapsulating the direct, indirect and induced effects of tourism and which must be estimated by applying models. Economic impact studies aim to quantify economic benefits, that is, the net increase in the wealth of residents resulting from tourism, measured in monetary terms, over and above the levels that would prevail in its absence.

Economic territory : The term "economic territory" is a geographical reference and points to the country for which the measurement is done (country of reference) ( IRTS 2008, 2.15 ).

Economically active population : The economically active population or labour force comprises all persons of either sex who furnish the supply of labour for the production of goods and services as defined by the system of national accounts during a specified time-reference period (ILO, Thirteenth ICLS, 6.18).

Economy (of reference): "Economy" (or "economy of reference") is an economic reference defined in the same way as in the balance of payments and in the system of national accounts: it refers to the economic agents that are resident in the country of reference ( IRTS 2008, 2.15 ).

Education tourism : Education tourism covers those types of tourism which have as a primary motivation the tourist's engagement and experience in learning, self-improvement, intellectual growth and skills development. Education Tourism represents a broad range of products and services related to academic studies, skill enhancement holidays, school trips, sports training, career development courses and language courses, among others.

Employees : Employees are all those workers who hold the type of job defined as "paid employment" (ILO, Fifteenth ICLS, pp. 20-22).

Employer-employee relationship : An employer-employee relationship exists when there is an agreement, which may be formal or informal, between an entity and an individual, normally entered into voluntarily by both parties, whereby the individual works for the entity in return for remuneration in cash or in kind ( BPM6, 11.11 ).

Employers : Employers are those workers who, working on their own account with one or more partners, hold the type of job defined as a "self-employment job" and, in this capacity, on a continuous basis (including the reference period) have engaged one or more persons to work for them in their business as "employee(s)" (ILO, Fifteenth ICLS, pp. 20-22).

Employment : Persons in employment are all persons above a specified age who, during a specified brief period, either one week or one day, were in paid employment or self-employment (OECD GST, p. 170).

Employment in tourism industries : Employment in tourism industries may be measured as a count of the persons employed in tourism industries in any of their jobs, as a count of the persons employed in tourism industries in their main job, or as a count of the jobs in tourism industries ( IRTS 2008, 7.9 ).

Enterprise : An enterprise is an institutional unit engaged in production of goods and/or services. It may be a corporation, a non-profit institution, or an unincorporated enterprise. Corporate enterprises and non-profit institutions are complete institutional units. An unincorporated enterprise, however, refers to an institutional unit —a household or government unit —only in its capacity as a producer of goods and services (OECD BD4, p. 232)

Establishment : An establishment is an enterprise, or part of an enterprise, that is situated in a single location and in which only a single productive activity is carried out or in which the principal productive activity accounts for most of the value added ( SNA 2008, 5.14 ).

Estimation : Estimation is concerned with inference about the numerical value of unknown population values from incomplete data such as a sample. If a single figure is calculated for each unknown parameter the process is called "point estimation". If an interval is calculated within which the parameter is likely, in some sense, to lie, the process is called "interval estimation".

Exports of goods and services : Exports of goods and services consist of sales, barter, or gifts or grants, of goods and services from residents to non-residents (OECD GST, p. 194)

Frame : A list, map or other specification of the units which define a population to be completely enumerated or sampled.

Forms of tourism : There are three basic forms of tourism: domestic tourism, inbound tourism, and outbound tourism. These can be combined in various ways to derive the following additional forms of tourism: internal tourism, national tourism and international tourism.

Gastronomy tourism :  Gastronomy tourism is a type of tourism activity which is characterized by the visitor's experience linked with food and related products and activities while travelling. Along with authentic, traditional, and/or innovative culinary experiences, Gastronomy Tourism may also involve other related activities such as visiting the local producers, participating in food festivals and attending cooking classes. Eno-tourism (wine tourism), as a sub-type of gastronomy tourism, refers to tourism whose purpose is visiting vineyards, wineries, tasting, consuming and/or purchasing wine, often at or near the source.

Goods : Goods are physical, produced objects for which a demand exists, over which ownership rights can be established and whose ownership can be transferred from one institutional unit to another by engaging in transactions on markets ( SNA 2008, p. 623 ).

Gross fixed capital formation : Gross fixed capital formation is defined as the value of institutional units' acquisitions less disposals of fixed assets. Fixed assets are produced assets (such as machinery, equipment, buildings or other structures) that are used repeatedly or continuously in production over several accounting periods (more than one year) ( SNA 2008, 1.52 ).

Gross margin : The gross margin of a provider of reservation services is the difference between the value at which the intermediated service is sold and the value accrued to the provider of reservation services for this intermediated service.

Gross value added : Gross value added is the value of output less the value of intermediate consumption ( TSA:RMF 2008, 3.32 ).

Gross value added of tourism industries : Gross value added of tourism industries (GVATI) is the total gross value added of all establishments belonging to tourism industries, regardless of whether all their output is provided to visitors and the degree of specialization of their production process ( TSA:RMF 2008, 4.86 ).

Grossing up : Activity aimed at transforming, based on statistical methodology, micro-data from samples into aggregate-level information representative of the target population.

Health tourism : Health tourism covers those types of tourism which have as a primary motivation, the contribution to physical, mental and/or spiritual health through medical and wellness-based activities which increase the capacity of individuals to satisfy their own needs and function better as individuals in their environment and society. Health tourism is the umbrella term for the subtypes wellness tourism and medical tourism.

Imputation : Procedure for entering a value for a specific data item where the response is missing or unusable.

Inbound tourism : Inbound tourism comprises the activities of a non-resident visitor within the country of reference on an inbound tourism trip ( IRTS 2008, 2.39 ).

Inbound tourism consumption : Inbound tourism consumption is the tourism consumption of a non-resident visitor within the economy of reference ( TSA:RMF 2008, figure 2.1 ).

Inbound tourism expenditure : Inbound tourism expenditure is the tourism expenditure of a non-resident visitor within the economy of reference ( IRTS 2008, 4.15(b) ).

Innovation in tourism : Innovation in tourism is the introduction of a new or improved component which intends to bring tangible and intangible benefits to tourism stakeholders and the local community, improve the value of the tourism experience and the core competencies of the tourism sector and hence enhance tourism competitiveness and /or sustainability. Innovation in tourism may cover potential areas, such as tourism destinations, tourism products, technology, processes, organizations and business models, skills, architecture, services, tools and/or practices for management, marketing, communication, operation, quality assurance and pricing.

Institutional sector : An aggregation of institutional units on the basis of the type of producer and depending on their principal activity and function, which are considered to be indicative of their economic behaviour.

Institutional unit : The elementary economic decision-making centre characterised by uniformity of behaviour and decision-making autonomy in the exercise of its principal function.

Intermediate consumption : Intermediate consumption consists of the value of the goods and services consumed as inputs by a process of production, excluding fixed assets whose consumption is recorded as consumption of fixed capital ( SNA 2008, 6.213 ).

Internal tourism : Internal tourism comprises domestic tourism and inbound tourism, that is to say, the activities of resident and non-resident visitors within the country of reference as part of domestic or international tourism trips ( IRTS 2008, 2.40(a) ).

Internal tourism consumption : Internal tourism consumption is the tourism consumption of both resident and non-resident visitors within the economy of reference. It is the sum of domestic tourism consumption and inbound tourism consumption ( TSA:RMF 2008, figure 2.1 ).

Internal tourism expenditure : Internal tourism expenditure comprises all tourism expenditure of visitors, both resident and non-resident, within the economy of reference. It is the sum of domestic tourism expenditure and inbound tourism expenditure. It includes acquisition of goods and services imported into the country of reference and sold to visitors. This indicator provides the most comprehensive measurement of tourism expenditure in the economy of reference ( IRTS 2008, 4.20(a) ).

International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities : The International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC) consists of a coherent and consistent classification structure of economic activities based on a set of internationally agreed concepts, definitions, principles and classification rules. It provides a comprehensive framework within which economic data can be collected and reported in a format that is designed for purposes of economic analysis, decision-taking and policymaking. The classification structure represents a standard format to organize detailed information about the state of an economy according to economic principles and perceptions (ISIC, Rev.4, 1).

International tourism : International tourism comprises inbound tourism and outbound tourism, that is to say, the activities of resident visitors outside the country of reference, either as part of domestic or outbound tourism trips and the activities of non-resident visitors within the country of reference on inbound tourism trips ( IRTS 2008, 2.40(c) ).

International visitor : An international traveller qualifies as an international visitor with respect to the country of reference if: (a) he/she is on a tourism trip and (b) he/she is a non-resident travelling in the country of reference or a resident travelling outside of it ( IRTS 2008, 2.42 ).

Job : The agreement between an employee and the employer defines a job and each self-employed person has a job ( SNA 2008, 19.30 ).

Measurement error : Error in reading, calculating or recording numerical value.

Medical tourism : Medical tourism is a type of tourism activity which involves the use of evidence-based medical healing resources and services (both invasive and non-invasive). This may include diagnosis, treatment, cure, prevention and rehabilitation.

Meetings industry : To highlight purposes relevant to the meetings industry, if a trip's main purpose is business/professional, it can be further subdivided into "attending meetings, conferences or congresses, trade fairs and exhibitions" and "other business and professional purposes". The term meetings industry is preferred by the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA), Meeting Professionals International (MPI) and Reed Travel over the acronym MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) which does not recognize the industrial nature of such activities.

Metadata : Data that defines and describes other data and processes.

MICE : See meetings industry.

Microdata : Non-aggregated observations, or measurements of characteristics of individual units.

Mirror statistics : Mirror statistics are used to conduct bilateral comparisons of two basic measures of a trade flow and are a traditional tool for detecting the causes of asymmetries in statistics (OECD GST, p. 335).

Mountain tourism : Mountain tourism is a type of tourism activity which takes place in a defined and limited geographical space such as hills or mountains with distinctive characteristics and attributes that are inherent to a specific landscape, topography, climate, biodiversity (flora and fauna) and local community. It encompasses a broad range of outdoor leisure and sports activities.

National tourism : National tourism comprises domestic tourism and outbound tourism, that is to say, the activities of resident visitors within and outside the country of reference, either as part of domestic or outbound tourism trips ( IRTS 2008, 2.40(b) ).

National tourism consumption : National tourism consumption is the tourism consumption of resident visitors, within and outside the economy of reference. It is the sum of domestic tourism consumption and outbound tourism consumption ( TSA:RMF 2008, figure 2.1 ).

National tourism expenditure : National tourism expenditure comprises all tourism expenditure of resident visitors within and outside the economy of reference. It is the sum of domestic tourism expenditure and outbound tourism expenditure ( IRTS 2008, 4.20(b) ).

Nationality : The concept of "country of residence" of a traveller is different from that of his/her nationality or citizenship ( IRTS 2008, 2.19 ).

Non-monetary indicators : Data measured in physical or other non-monetary units should not be considered a secondary part of a satellite account. They are essential components, both for the information they provide directly and in order to analyse the monetary data adequately ( SNA 2008, 29.84 ).

Observation unit : entity on which information is received and statistics are compiled.

Outbound tourism : Outbound tourism comprises the activities of a resident visitor outside the country of reference, either as part of an outbound tourism trip or as part of a domestic tourism trip ( IRTS 2008, 2.39(c) ).

Outbound tourism consumption : Outbound tourism consumption is the tourism consumption of a resident visitor outside the economy of reference ( TSA:RMF 2008, figure 2.1 ).

Outbound tourism expenditure : Outbound tourism expenditure is the tourism expenditure of a resident visitor outside the economy of reference ( IRTS 2008, 4.15(c) ).

Output : Output is defined as the goods and services produced by an establishment, a) excluding the value of any goods and services used in an activity for which the establishment does not assume the risk of using the products in production, and b) excluding the value of goods and services consumed by the same establishment except for goods and services used for capital formation (fixed capital or changes in inventories) or own final consumption ( SNA 2008, 6.89 ).

Output (main): The main output of a (productive) activity should be determined by reference to the value added of the goods sold or services rendered (ISIC rev.4, 114).

Pilot survey : The aim of a pilot survey is to test the questionnaire (pertinence of the questions, understanding of questions by those being interviewed, duration of the interview) and to check various potential sources for sampling and non-sampling errors: for instance, the place in which the surveys are carried out and the method used, the identification of any omitted answers and the reason for the omission, problems of communicating in various languages, translation, the mechanics of data collection, the organization of field work, etc.

Place of usual residence : The place of usual residence is the geographical place where the enumerated person usually resides, and is defined by the location of his/her principal dwelling (Principles and recommendations for population and housing censuses of the United Nations, 2.20 to 2.24).

Probability sample : A sample selected by a method based on the theory of probability (random process), that is, by a method involving knowledge of the likelihood of any unit being selected.

Production account : The production account records the activity of producing goods and services as defined within the SNA. Its balancing item, gross value added, is defined as the value of output less the value of intermediate consumption and is a measure of the contribution to GDP made by an individual producer, industry or sector. Gross value added is the source from which the primary incomes of the SNA are generated and is therefore carried forward into the primary distribution of income account. Value added and GDP may also be measured net by deducting consumption of fixed capital, a figure representing the decline in value during the period of the fixed capital used in a production process ( SNA 2008, 1.17 ).

Production : Economic production may be defined as an activity carried out under the control and responsibility of an institutional unit that uses inputs of labour, capital, and goods and services to produce outputs of goods or services ( SNA 2008, 6.24. ).

Purpose of a tourism trip (main): The main purpose of a tourism trip is defined as the purpose in the absence of which the trip would not have taken place ( IRTS 2008, 3.10. ). Classification of tourism trips according to the main purpose refers to nine categories: this typology allows the identification of different subsets of visitors (business visitors, transit visitors, etc.) See also destination of a tourism trip ( IRTS 2008, 3.14 ).

Quality of a tourism destination : Quality of a tourism destination is the result of a process which implies the satisfaction of all tourism product and service needs, requirements and expectations of the consumer at an acceptable price, in conformity with mutually accepted contractual conditions and the implicit underlying factors such as safety and security, hygiene, accessibility, communication, infrastructure and public amenities and services. It also involves aspects of ethics, transparency and respect towards the human, natural and cultural environment. Quality, as one of the key drivers of tourism competitiveness, is also a professional tool for organizational, operational and perception purposes for tourism suppliers.

Questionnaire and Questionnaire design : Questionnaire is a group or sequence of questions designed to elicit information on a subject, or sequence of subjects, from a reporting unit or from another producer of official statistics. Questionnaire design is the design (text, order, and conditions for skipping) of the questions used to obtain the data needed for the survey.

Reference period : The period of time or point in time to which the measured observation is intended to refer.

Relevance : The degree to which statistics meet current and potential users' needs.

Reliability : Closeness of the initial estimated value to the subsequent estimated value.

Reporting unit : Unit that supplies the data for a given survey instance, like a questionnaire or interview. Reporting units may, or may not, be the same as the observation unit.

Residents/non-residents : The residents of a country are individuals whose centre of predominant economic interest is located in its economic territory. For a country, the non-residents are individuals whose centre of predominant economic interest is located outside its economic territory.

Response and non-response : Response and non-response to various elements of a survey entail potential errors.

Response error : Response errors may be defined as those arising from the interviewing process. Such errors may be due to a number of circumstances, such as inadequate concepts or questions; inadequate training; interviewer failures; respondent failures.

Rural tourism : Rural tourism is a type of tourism activity in which the visitor's experience is related to a wide range of products generally linked to nature-based activities, agriculture, rural lifestyle / culture, angling and sightseeing. Rural tourism activities take place in non-urban (rural) areas with the following characteristics:

• Low population density;
• Landscape and land-use dominated by agriculture and forestry; and
• Traditional social structure and lifestyle

Same-day visitor (or excursionist): A visitor (domestic, inbound or outbound) is classified as a tourist (or overnight visitor), if his/her trip includes an overnight stay, or as a same-day visitor (or excursionist) otherwise ( IRTS 2008, 2.13 ).

Sample : A subset of a frame where elements are selected based on a process with a known probability of selection.

Sample survey : A survey which is carried out using a sampling method.

Sampling error : That part of the difference between a population value and an estimate thereof, derived from a random sample, which is due to the fact that only a subset of the population is enumerated.

Satellite accounts : There are two types of satellite accounts, serving two different functions. The first type, sometimes called an internal satellite, takes the full set of accounting rules and conventions of the SNA but focuses on a particular aspect of interest by moving away from the standard classifications and hierarchies. Examples are tourism, coffee production and environmental protection expenditure. The second type, called an external satellite, may add non-economic data or vary some of the accounting conventions or both. It is a particularly suitable way to explore new areas in a research context. An example may be the role of volunteer labour in the economy ( SNA 2008, 29.85 ).

SDMX, Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange : Set of technical standards and content-oriented guidelines, together with an IT architecture and tools, to be used for the efficient exchange and sharing of statistical data and metadata (SDMX).

Seasonal adjustment : Seasonal adjustment is a statistical technique to remove the effects of seasonal calendar influences on a series. Seasonal effects usually reflect the influence of the seasons themselves, either directly or through production series related to them, or social conventions. Other types of calendar variation occur as a result of influences such as number of days in the calendar period, the accounting or recording practices adopted or the incidence of moving holidays.

Self-employment job : Self-employment jobs are those jobs where remuneration is directly dependent upon the profits (or the potential of profits) derived from the goods or services produced.

Self-employed with paid employees : Self-employed with paid employees are classified as employers.

Self-employed without employees : Self-employed without employees are classified as own-account workers.

Services : Services are the result of a production activity that changes the conditions of the consuming units, or facilitates the exchange of products or financial assets. They cannot be traded separately from their production. By the time their production is completed, they must have been provided to the consumers ( SNA 2008, 6.17 ).

Social transfers in kind : A special case of transfers in kind is that of social transfers in kind. These consist of goods and services provided by general government and non-profit institutions serving households (NPISHs) that are delivered to individual households. Health and education services are the prime examples. Rather than provide a specified amount of money to be used to purchase medical and educational services, the services are often provided in kind to make sure that the need for the services is met. (Sometimes the recipient purchases the service and is reimbursed by the insurance or assistance scheme. Such a transaction is still treated as being in kind because the recipient is merely acting as the agent of the insurance scheme) (SNA 2008, 3.83).

Sports tourism : Sports tourism is a type of tourism activity which refers to the travel experience of the tourist who either observes as a spectator or actively participates in a sporting event generally involving commercial and non-commercial activities of a competitive nature.

Standard classification : Classifications that follow prescribed rules and are generally recommended and accepted.

Statistical error : The unknown difference between the retained value and the true value.

Statistical indicator : A data element that represents statistical data for a specified time, place, and other characteristics, and is corrected for at least one dimension (usually size) to allow for meaningful comparisons.

Statistical metadata : Data about statistical data.

Statistical unit : Entity about which information is sought and about which statistics are compiled. Statistical units may be identifiable legal or physical entities or statistical constructs.

Survey : An investigation about the characteristics of a given population by means of collecting data from a sample of that population and estimating their characteristics through the systematic use of statistical methodology.

System of National Accounts : The System of National Accounts (SNA) is the internationally agreed standard set of recommendations on how to compile measures of economic activity in accordance with strict accounting conventions based on economic principles. The recommendations are expressed in terms of a set of concepts, definitions, classifications and accounting rules that comprise the internationally agreed standard for measuring indicators of economic performance. The accounting framework of the SNA allows economic data to be compiled and presented in a format that is designed for purposes of economic analysis, decision-taking and policymaking ( SNA 2008, 1.1 ).

Total tourism internal demand : Total tourism internal demand, is the sum of internal tourism consumption, tourism gross fixed capital formation and tourism collective consumption ( TSA:RMF 2008, 4.114 ). It does not include outbound tourism consumption.

Tourism : Tourism refers to the activity of visitors ( IRTS 2008, 2.9 ).

Tourism characteristic activities : Tourism characteristic activities are the activities that typically produce tourism characteristic products. As the industrial origin of a product (the ISIC industry that produces it) is not a criterion for the aggregation of products within a similar CPC category, there is no strict one-to-one relationship between products and the industries producing them as their principal outputs ( IRTS 2008, 5.11 ).

Tourism characteristic products : Tourism characteristic products are those that satisfy one or both of the following criteria: a) Tourism expenditure on the product should represent a significant share total tourism expenditure (share-of-expenditure/demand condition); b) Tourism expenditure on the product should represent a significant share of the supply of the product in the economy (share-of-supply condition). This criterion implies that the supply of a tourism characteristic product would cease to exist in meaningful quantity in the absence of visitors ( IRTS 2008, 5.10 ).

Tourism connected products : Their significance within tourism analysis for the economy of reference is recognized although their link to tourism is very limited worldwide. Consequently, lists of such products will be country-specific ( IRTS 2008, 5.12 ).

Tourism consumption : Tourism consumption has the same formal definition as tourism expenditure. Nevertheless, the concept of tourism consumption used in the Tourism Satellite Account goes beyond that of tourism expenditure. Besides the amount paid for the acquisition of consumption goods and services, as well as valuables for own use or to give away, for and during tourism trips, which corresponds to monetary transactions (the focus of tourism expenditure), it also includes services associated with vacation accommodation on own account, tourism social transfers in kind and other imputed consumption. These transactions need to be estimated using sources different from information collected directly from the visitors, such as reports on home exchanges, estimations of rents associated with vacation homes, calculations of financial intermediation services indirectly measured (FISIM), etc. ( TSA:RMF 2008, 2.25 ).

Tourism destination : A tourism destination is a physical space with or without administrative and/or analytical boundaries in which a visitor can spend an overnight. It is the cluster (co-location) of products and services, and of activities and experiences along the tourism value chain and a basic unit of analysis of tourism. A destination incorporates various stakeholders and can network to form larger destinations. It is also intangible with its image and identity which may influence its market competitiveness.

Tourism direct gross domestic product : Tourism direct gross domestic product (TDGDP) is the sum of the part of gross value added (at basic prices) generated by all industries in response to internal tourism consumption plus the amount of net taxes on products and imports included within the value of this expenditure at purchasers' prices ( TSA:RMF 2008, 4.96 ).

Tourism direct gross value added : Tourism direct gross value added (TDGVA) is the part of gross value added generated by tourism industries and other industries of the economy that directly serve visitors in response to internal tourism consumption ( TSA:RMF 2008, 4.88 ).

Tourism expenditure : Tourism expenditure refers to the amount paid for the acquisition of consumption goods and services, as well as valuables, for own use or to give away, for and during tourism trips. It includes expenditures by visitors themselves, as well as expenses that are paid for or reimbursed by others ( IRTS 2008, 4.2 ).

Tourism industries : The tourism industries comprise all establishments for which the principal activity is a tourism characteristic activity. Tourism industries (also referred to as tourism activities) are the activities that typically producetourism characteristic products. The term tourism industries is equivalent to tourism characteristic activities and the two terms are sometimes used synonymously in the IRTS 2008, 5.10, 5.11 and figure 5.1 .

Tourism product : A tourism product is a combination of tangible and intangible elements, such as natural, cultural and man-made resources, attractions, facilities, services and activities around a specific center of interest which represents the core of the destination marketing mix and creates an overall visitor experience including emotional aspects for the potential customers. A tourism product is priced and sold through distribution channels and it has a life-cycle.

Tourism ratio : For each variable of supply in the Tourism Satellite Account, the tourism ratiois the ratio between the total value of tourism share and total value of the corresponding variable in the Tourism Satellite Account expressed in percentage form ( TSA:RMF 2008, 4.56 ). (See also Tourism share).

Tourism Satellite Account : The Tourism Satellite Account is the second international standard on tourism statistics (Tourism Satellite Account: Recommended Methodological Framework 2008 –TSA:RMF 2008) that has been developed in order to present economic data relative to tourism within a framework of internal and external consistency with the rest of the statistical system through its link to the System of National Accounts. It is the basic reconciliation framework of tourism statistics. As a statistical tool for the economic accounting of tourism, the TSA can be seen as a set of 10 summary tables, each with their underlying data and representing a different aspect of the economic data relative to tourism: inbound, domestic tourism and outbound tourism expenditure, internal tourism expenditure, production accounts of tourism industries, the Gross Value Added (GVA) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) attributable to tourism demand, employment, investment, government consumption, and non-monetary indicators.

Tourism Satellite Account aggregates : The compilation of the following aggregates, which represent a set of relevant indicators of the size of tourism in an economy is recommended ( TSA:RMF 2008, 4.81 ):

• Internal tourism expenditure;
• Internal tourism consumption;
• Gross value added of tourism industries (GVATI);
• Tourism direct gross value added (TDGVA);
• Tourism direct gross domestic product (TDGDP).

Tourism sector : The tourism sector, as contemplated in the TSA, is the cluster of production units in different industries that provide consumption goods and services demanded by visitors. Such industries are called tourism industries because visitor acquisition represents such a significant share of their supply that, in the absence of visitors, their production of these would cease to exist in meaningful quantity.

Tourism share : Tourism share is the share of the corresponding fraction of internal tourism consumption in each component of supply ( TSA:RMF 2008, 4.51 ). For each industry, the tourism share of output (in value), is the sum of the tourism share corresponding to each product component of its output ( TSA:RMF 2008, 4.55 ). (See also Tourism ratio ).

Tourism single-purpose consumer durable goods : Tourism single-purpose consumer durables is a specific category of consumer durable goods that include durable goods that are used exclusively, or almost exclusively, by individuals while on tourism trips ( TSA:RMF 2008 , 2.41 and Annex 5 ).

Tourism trip : Trips taken by visitors are tourism trips ( IRTS 2008, 2.29 ).

Tourist (or overnight visitor): A visitor (domestic, inbound or outbound) is classified as a tourist (or overnight visitor), if his/her trip includes an overnight stay, or as a same-day visitor (or excursionist) otherwise ( IRTS 2008, 2.13 ).

Tourism value chain : The tourism value chain is the sequence of primary and support activities which are strategically fundamental for the performance of the tourism sector. Linked processes such as policy making and integrated planning, product development and packaging, promotion and marketing, distribution and sales and destination operations and services are the key primary activities of the tourism value chain. Support activities involve transport and infrastructure, human resource development, technology and systems development and other complementary goods and services which may not be related to core tourism businesses but have a high impact on the value of tourism.

Travel / traveller : Travel refers to the activity of travellers. A traveller is someone who moves between different geographic locations, for any purpose and any duration ( IRTS 2008, 2.4 ). The visitor is a particular type of traveller and consequently tourism is a subset of travel.

Travel group : A travel group is made up of individuals or travel parties travelling together: examples are people travelling on the same package tour or youngsters attending a summer camp ( IRTS 2008, 3.5 ).

Travel item (in balance of payments): Travel is an item of the goods and services account of the balance of payments: travel credits cover goods and services for own use or to give away acquired from an economy by non-residents during visits to that economy. Travel debits cover goods and services for own use or to give away acquired from other economies by residents during visits to other economies ( BPM6, 10.86 ).

Travel party : A travel party is defined as visitors travelling together on a trip and whose expenditures are pooled ( IRTS 2008, 3.2 ).

Trip : A trip refers to the travel by a person from the time of departure from his/her usual residence until he/she returns: it thus refers to a round trip. Trips taken by visitors are tourism trips.

Urban/city tourism : Urban/city tourism is a type of tourism activity which takes place in an urban space with its inherent attributes characterized by non-agricultural based economy such as administration, manufacturing, trade and services and by being nodal points of transport. Urban/city destinations offer a broad and heterogeneous range of cultural, architectural, technological, social and natural experiences and products for leisure and business.

Usual environment: The usual environment of an individual, a key concept in tourism, is defined as the geographical area (though not necessarily a contiguous one) within which an individual conducts his/her regular life routines ( IRTS 2008, 2.21 ).

Usual residence : The place of usual residence is the geographical place where the enumerated person usually resides (Principles and recommendations for population and housing censuses of the United Nations, 2.16 to 2.18).

Vacation home : A vacation home (sometimes also designated as a holiday home) is a secondary dwelling that is visited by the members of the household mostly for purposes of recreation, vacation or any other form of leisure ( IRTS 2008, 2.27 ).

Valuables : Valuables are produced goods of considerable value that are not used primarily for purposes of production or consumption but are held as stores of value over time ( SNA 2008, 10.13 ).

Visit : A trip is made up of visits to different places.The term "tourism visit" refers to a stay in a place visited during a tourism trip ( IRTS 2008, 2.7 and 2.33 ).

Visitor : A visitor is a traveller taking a trip to a main destination outside his/her usual environment, for less than a year, for any main purpose (business, leisure or other personal purpose) other than to be employed by a resident entity in the country or place visited ( IRTS 2008, 2.9 ). A visitor (domestic, inbound or outbound) is classified as a tourist (or overnight visitor), if his/her trip includes an overnight stay, or as a same-day visitor (or excursionist) otherwise ( IRTS 2008, 2.13 ).

Wellness tourism : Wellness tourism is a type of tourism activity which aims to improve and balance all of the main domains of human life including physical, mental, emotional, occupational, intellectual and spiritual. The primary motivation for the wellness tourist is to engage in preventive, proactive, lifestyle-enhancing activities such as fitness, healthy eating, relaxation, pampering and healing treatments.

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Meaning of travel in English

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travel verb ( MAKE JOURNEY )

• I like to travel but, then again, I'm very fond of my home .
• It's often quicker to travel across country and avoid the major roads altogether .
• Passengers without proper documentation will not be allowed to travel.
• The elderly travel free on public transport .
• We like to travel in the autumn when there are fewer tourists .
• The tragedy is that cultures don't always travel well, and few immigrant groups can sustain their culture over the long term .
• around Robin Hood's barn idiom
• communication
• public transport
• super-commuting
• transoceanic
• well travelled

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

travel verb ( MOVE )

• The objects travel in elliptical orbits .
• In 1947, a pilot flying over the Cascades saw nine metallic flying objects traveling at an estimated 1,200 miles per hour .
• The elevator traveled smoothly upward .
• White light separates out into its component wavelengths when traveling through a prism .
• As the material travels through the winding machine , excess liquid is squeezed out by rollers .
• Lead dust travels easily from hands to mouth and can't be seen .
• body English
• kinetic energy
• kinetically
• repair to somewhere

travel verb ( BREAK RULE )

• foul trouble
• free-throw lane
• free-throw line
• full-court press
• run-and-gun

travel noun ( ACTIVITY )

• They offer a 10 percent discount on rail travel for students .
• The price includes travel and accommodation but meals are extra .
• His work provided him with the opportunity for a lot of foreign travel.
• The popular myth is that air travel is more dangerous than travel by car or bus .
• Passes are available for one month's unlimited travel within Europe .
• break-journey
• circumnavigation

travel noun ( MOVEMENT OF OBJECT )

• It can be difficult to predict the travel of smoke from smouldering fires .
• The travel of the bullets and blood spatter showed that he was lying on the ground on his side when he was shot .
• This seemed to prove that light has a finite speed of travel.
• Striking the ball when the clubhead is already past the lowest point of its travel gives a slight overspin.
• The actuator then rotates its output shaft to the extremes of its travel.
• bring someone on
• non-competitor
• park the bus idiom
• play big idiom
• step/move up a gear idiom

travel | American Dictionary

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balancing act

a difficult situation in which someone has to try to give equal amounts of importance, time, attention, etc. to two or more different things at the same time

Alike and analogous (Talking about similarities, Part 1)

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Time Travel

There is an extensive literature on time travel in both philosophy and physics. Part of the great interest of the topic stems from the fact that reasons have been given both for thinking that time travel is physically possible—and for thinking that it is logically impossible! This entry deals primarily with philosophical issues; issues related to the physics of time travel are covered in the separate entries on time travel and modern physics and time machines . We begin with the definitional question: what is time travel? We then turn to the major objection to the possibility of backwards time travel: the Grandfather paradox. Next, issues concerning causation are discussed—and then, issues in the metaphysics of time and change. We end with a discussion of the question why, if backwards time travel will ever occur, we have not been visited by time travellers from the future.

1.1 Time Discrepancy

1.2 changing the past, 2.1 can and cannot, 2.2 improbable coincidences, 2.3 inexplicable occurrences, 3.1 backwards causation, 3.2 causal loops, 4.1 time travel and time, 4.2 time travel and change, 5. where are the time travellers, other internet resources, related entries, 1. what is time travel.

There is a number of rather different scenarios which would seem, intuitively, to count as ‘time travel’—and a number of scenarios which, while sharing certain features with some of the time travel cases, seem nevertheless not to count as genuine time travel: [ 1 ]

Time travel Doctor . Doctor Who steps into a machine in 2024. Observers outside the machine see it disappear. Inside the machine, time seems to Doctor Who to pass for ten minutes. Observers in 1984 (or 3072) see the machine appear out of nowhere. Doctor Who steps out. [ 2 ] Leap . The time traveller takes hold of a special device (or steps into a machine) and suddenly disappears; she appears at an earlier (or later) time. Unlike in Doctor , the time traveller experiences no lapse of time between her departure and arrival: from her point of view, she instantaneously appears at the destination time. [ 3 ] Putnam . Oscar Smith steps into a machine in 2024. From his point of view, things proceed much as in Doctor : time seems to Oscar Smith to pass for a while; then he steps out in 1984. For observers outside the machine, things proceed differently. Observers of Oscar’s arrival in the past see a time machine suddenly appear out of nowhere and immediately divide into two copies of itself: Oscar Smith steps out of one; and (through the window) they see inside the other something that looks just like what they would see if a film of Oscar Smith were played backwards (his hair gets shorter; food comes out of his mouth and goes back into his lunch box in a pristine, uneaten state; etc.). Observers of Oscar’s departure from the future do not simply see his time machine disappear after he gets into it: they see it collide with the apparently backwards-running machine just described, in such a way that both are simultaneously annihilated. [ 4 ] Gödel . The time traveller steps into an ordinary rocket ship (not a special time machine) and flies off on a certain course. At no point does she disappear (as in Leap ) or ‘turn back in time’ (as in Putnam )—yet thanks to the overall structure of spacetime (as conceived in the General Theory of Relativity), the traveller arrives at a point in the past (or future) of her departure. (Compare the way in which someone can travel continuously westwards, and arrive to the east of her departure point, thanks to the overall curved structure of the surface of the earth.) [ 5 ] Einstein . The time traveller steps into an ordinary rocket ship and flies off at high speed on a round trip. When he returns to Earth, thanks to certain effects predicted by the Special Theory of Relativity, only a very small amount of time has elapsed for him—he has aged only a few months—while a great deal of time has passed on Earth: it is now hundreds of years in the future of his time of departure. [ 6 ] Not time travel Sleep . One is very tired, and falls into a deep sleep. When one awakes twelve hours later, it seems from one’s own point of view that hardly any time has passed. Coma . One is in a coma for a number of years and then awakes, at which point it seems from one’s own point of view that hardly any time has passed. Cryogenics . One is cryogenically frozen for hundreds of years. Upon being woken, it seems from one’s own point of view that hardly any time has passed. Virtual . One enters a highly realistic, interactive virtual reality simulator in which some past era has been recreated down to the finest detail. Crystal . One looks into a crystal ball and sees what happened at some past time, or will happen at some future time. (Imagine that the crystal ball really works—like a closed-circuit security monitor, except that the vision genuinely comes from some past or future time. Even so, the person looking at the crystal ball is not thereby a time traveller.) Waiting . One enters one’s closet and stays there for seven hours. When one emerges, one has ‘arrived’ seven hours in the future of one’s ‘departure’. Dateline . One departs at 8pm on Monday, flies for fourteen hours, and arrives at 10pm on Monday.

A satisfactory definition of time travel would, at least, need to classify the cases in the right way. There might be some surprises—perhaps, on the best definition of ‘time travel’, Cryogenics turns out to be time travel after all—but it should certainly be the case, for example, that Gödel counts as time travel and that Sleep and Waiting do not. [ 7 ]

In fact there is no entirely satisfactory definition of ‘time travel’ in the literature. The most popular definition is the one given by Lewis (1976, 145–6):

What is time travel? Inevitably, it involves a discrepancy between time and time. Any traveller departs and then arrives at his destination; the time elapsed from departure to arrival…is the duration of the journey. But if he is a time traveller, the separation in time between departure and arrival does not equal the duration of his journey.…How can it be that the same two events, his departure and his arrival, are separated by two unequal amounts of time?…I reply by distinguishing time itself, external time as I shall also call it, from the personal time of a particular time traveller: roughly, that which is measured by his wristwatch. His journey takes an hour of his personal time, let us say…But the arrival is more than an hour after the departure in external time, if he travels toward the future; or the arrival is before the departure in external time…if he travels toward the past.

This correctly excludes Waiting —where the length of the ‘journey’ precisely matches the separation between ‘arrival’ and ‘departure’—and Crystal , where there is no journey at all—and it includes Doctor . It has trouble with Gödel , however—because when the overall structure of spacetime is as twisted as it is in the sort of case Gödel imagined, the notion of external time (“time itself”) loses its grip.

Another definition of time travel that one sometimes encounters in the literature (Arntzenius, 2006, 602) (Smeenk and Wüthrich, 2011, 5, 26) equates time travel with the existence of CTC’s: closed timelike curves. A curve in this context is a line in spacetime; it is timelike if it could represent the career of a material object; and it is closed if it returns to its starting point (i.e. in spacetime—not merely in space). This now includes Gödel —but it excludes Einstein .

The lack of an adequate definition of ‘time travel’ does not matter for our purposes here. [ 8 ] It suffices that we have clear cases of (what would count as) time travel—and that these cases give rise to all the problems that we shall wish to discuss.

Some authors (in philosophy, physics and science fiction) consider ‘time travel’ scenarios in which there are two temporal dimensions (e.g. Meiland (1974)), and others consider scenarios in which there are multiple ‘parallel’ universes—each one with its own four-dimensional spacetime (e.g. Deutsch and Lockwood (1994)). There is a question whether travelling to another version of 2001 (i.e. not the very same version one experienced in the past)—a version at a different point on the second time dimension, or in a different parallel universe—is really time travel, or whether it is more akin to Virtual . In any case, this kind of scenario does not give rise to many of the problems thrown up by the idea of travelling to the very same past one experienced in one’s younger days. It is these problems that form the primary focus of the present entry, and so we shall not have much to say about other kinds of ‘time travel’ scenario in what follows.

One objection to the possibility of time travel flows directly from attempts to define it in anything like Lewis’s way. The worry is that because time travel involves “a discrepancy between time and time”, time travel scenarios are simply incoherent. The time traveller traverses thirty years in one year; she is 51 years old 21 years after her birth; she dies at the age of 100, 200 years before her birth; and so on. The objection is that these are straightforward contradictions: the basic description of what time travel involves is inconsistent; therefore time travel is logically impossible. [ 9 ]

There must be something wrong with this objection, because it would show Einstein to be logically impossible—whereas this sort of future-directed time travel has actually been observed (albeit on a much smaller scale—but that does not affect the present point) (Hafele and Keating, 1972b,a). The most common response to the objection is that there is no contradiction because the interval of time traversed by the time traveller and the duration of her journey are measured with respect to different frames of reference: there is thus no reason why they should coincide. A similar point applies to the discrepancy between the time elapsed since the time traveller’s birth and her age upon arrival. There is no more of a contradiction here than in the fact that Melbourne is both 800 kilometres away from Sydney—along the main highway—and 1200 kilometres away—along the coast road. [ 10 ]

Before leaving the question ‘What is time travel?’ we should note the crucial distinction between changing the past and participating in (aka affecting or influencing) the past. [ 11 ] In the popular imagination, backwards time travel would allow one to change the past: to right the wrongs of history, to prevent one’s younger self doing things one later regretted, and so on. In a model with a single past, however, this idea is incoherent: the very description of the case involves a contradiction (e.g. the time traveller burns all her diaries at midnight on her fortieth birthday in 1976, and does not burn all her diaries at midnight on her fortieth birthday in 1976). It is not as if there are two versions of the past: the original one, without the time traveller present, and then a second version, with the time traveller playing a role. There is just one past—and two perspectives on it: the perspective of the younger self, and the perspective of the older time travelling self. If these perspectives are inconsistent (e.g. an event occurs in one but not the other) then the time travel scenario is incoherent.

This means that time travellers can do less than we might have hoped: they cannot right the wrongs of history; they cannot even stir a speck of dust on a certain day in the past if, on that day, the speck was in fact unmoved. But this does not mean that time travellers must be entirely powerless in the past: while they cannot do anything that did not actually happen, they can (in principle) do anything that did happen. Time travellers cannot change the past: they cannot make it different from the way it was—but they can participate in it: they can be amongst the people who did make the past the way it was. [ 12 ]

What about models involving two temporal dimensions, or parallel universes—do they allow for coherent scenarios in which the past is changed? [ 13 ] There is certainly no contradiction in saying that the time traveller burns all her diaries at midnight on her fortieth birthday in 1976 in universe 1 (or at hypertime A ), and does not burn all her diaries at midnight on her fortieth birthday in 1976 in universe 2 (or at hypertime B ). The question is whether this kind of story involves changing the past in the sense originally envisaged: righting the wrongs of history, preventing subsequently regretted actions, and so on. Goddu (2003) and van Inwagen (2010) argue that it does (in the context of particular hypertime models), while Smith (1997, 365–6; 2015) argues that it does not: that it involves avoiding the past—leaving it untouched while travelling to a different version of the past in which things proceed differently.

2. The Grandfather Paradox

The most important objection to the logical possibility of backwards time travel is the so-called Grandfather paradox. This paradox has actually convinced many people that backwards time travel is impossible:

The dead giveaway that true time-travel is flatly impossible arises from the well-known “paradoxes” it entails. The classic example is “What if you go back into the past and kill your grandfather when he was still a little boy?”…So complex and hopeless are the paradoxes…that the easiest way out of the irrational chaos that results is to suppose that true time-travel is, and forever will be, impossible. (Asimov 1995 [2003, 276–7]) travel into one’s past…would seem to give rise to all sorts of logical problems, if you were able to change history. For example, what would happen if you killed your parents before you were born. It might be that one could avoid such paradoxes by some modification of the concept of free will. But this will not be necessary if what I call the chronology protection conjecture is correct: The laws of physics prevent closed timelike curves from appearing . (Hawking, 1992, 604) [ 14 ]

The paradox comes in different forms. Here’s one version:

If time travel was logically possible then the time traveller could return to the past and in a suicidal rage destroy his time machine before it was completed and murder his younger self. But if this was so a necessary condition for the time trip to have occurred at all is removed, and we should then conclude that the time trip did not occur. Hence if the time trip did occur, then it did not occur. Hence it did not occur, and it is necessary that it did not occur. To reply, as it is standardly done, that our time traveller cannot change the past in this way, is a petitio principii . Why is it that the time traveller is constrained in this way? What mysterious force stills his sudden suicidal rage? (Smith, 1985, 58)

The idea is that backwards time travel is impossible because if it occurred, time travellers would attempt to do things such as kill their younger selves (or their grandfathers etc.). We know that doing these things—indeed, changing the past in any way—is impossible. But were there time travel, there would then be nothing left to stop these things happening. If we let things get to the stage where the time traveller is facing Grandfather with a loaded weapon, then there is nothing left to prevent the impossible from occurring. So we must draw the line earlier: it must be impossible for someone to get into this situation at all; that is, backwards time travel must be impossible.

In order to defend the possibility of time travel in the face of this argument we need to show that time travel is not a sure route to doing the impossible. So, given that a time traveller has gone to the past and is facing Grandfather, what could stop her killing Grandfather? Some science fiction authors resort to the idea of chaperones or time guardians who prevent time travellers from changing the past—or to mysterious forces of logic. But it is hard to take these ideas seriously—and more importantly, it is hard to make them work in detail when we remember that changing the past is impossible. (The chaperone is acting to ensure that the past remains as it was—but the only reason it ever was that way is because of his very actions.) [ 15 ] Fortunately there is a better response—also to be found in the science fiction literature, and brought to the attention of philosophers by Lewis (1976). What would stop the time traveller doing the impossible? She would fail “for some commonplace reason”, as Lewis (1976, 150) puts it. Her gun might jam, a noise might distract her, she might slip on a banana peel, etc. Nothing more than such ordinary occurrences is required to stop the time traveller killing Grandfather. Hence backwards time travel does not entail the occurrence of impossible events—and so the above objection is defused.

A problem remains. Suppose Tim, a time-traveller, is facing his grandfather with a loaded gun. Can Tim kill Grandfather? On the one hand, yes he can. He is an excellent shot; there is no chaperone to stop him; the laws of logic will not magically stay his hand; he hates Grandfather and will not hesitate to pull the trigger; etc. On the other hand, no he can’t. To kill Grandfather would be to change the past, and no-one can do that (not to mention the fact that if Grandfather died, then Tim would not have been born). So we have a contradiction: Tim can kill Grandfather and Tim cannot kill Grandfather. Time travel thus leads to a contradiction: so it is impossible.

Note the difference between this version of the Grandfather paradox and the version considered above. In the earlier version, the contradiction happens if Tim kills Grandfather. The solution was to say that Tim can go into the past without killing Grandfather—hence time travel does not entail a contradiction. In the new version, the contradiction happens as soon as Tim gets to the past. Of course Tim does not kill Grandfather—but we still have a contradiction anyway: for he both can do it, and cannot do it. As Lewis puts it:

Could a time traveler change the past? It seems not: the events of a past moment could no more change than numbers could. Yet it seems that he would be as able as anyone to do things that would change the past if he did them. If a time traveler visiting the past both could and couldn’t do something that would change it, then there cannot possibly be such a time traveler. (Lewis, 1976, 149)

Lewis’s own solution to this problem has been widely accepted. [ 16 ] It turns on the idea that to say that something can happen is to say that its occurrence is compossible with certain facts, where context determines (more or less) which facts are the relevant ones. Tim’s killing Grandfather in 1921 is compossible with the facts about his weapon, training, state of mind, and so on. It is not compossible with further facts, such as the fact that Grandfather did not die in 1921. Thus ‘Tim can kill Grandfather’ is true in one sense (relative to one set of facts) and false in another sense (relative to another set of facts)—but there is no single sense in which it is both true and false. So there is no contradiction here—merely an equivocation.

Another response is that of Vihvelin (1996), who argues that there is no contradiction here because ‘Tim can kill Grandfather’ is simply false (i.e. contra Lewis, there is no legitimate sense in which it is true). According to Vihvelin, for ‘Tim can kill Grandfather’ to be true, there must be at least some occasions on which ‘If Tim had tried to kill Grandfather, he would or at least might have succeeded’ is true—but, Vihvelin argues, at any world remotely like ours, the latter counterfactual is always false. [ 17 ]

Return to the original version of the Grandfather paradox and Lewis’s ‘commonplace reasons’ response to it. This response engenders a new objection—due to Horwich (1987)—not to the possibility but to the probability of backwards time travel.

Think about correlated events in general. Whenever we see two things frequently occurring together, this is because one of them causes the other, or some third thing causes both. Horwich calls this the Principle of V-Correlation:

if events of type A and B are associated with one another, then either there is always a chain of events between them…or else we find an earlier event of type C that links up with A and B by two such chains of events. What we do not see is…an inverse fork—in which A and B are connected only with a characteristic subsequent event, but no preceding one. (Horwich, 1987, 97–8)

For example, suppose that two students turn up to class wearing the same outfits. That could just be a coincidence (i.e. there is no common cause, and no direct causal link between the two events). If it happens every week for the whole semester, it is possible that it is a coincidence, but this is extremely unlikely . Normally, we see this sort of extensive correlation only if either there is a common cause (e.g. both students have product endorsement deals with the same clothing company, or both slavishly copy the same influencer) or a direct causal link (e.g. one student is copying the other).

Now consider the time traveller setting off to kill her younger self. As discussed, no contradiction need ensue—this is prevented not by chaperones or mysterious forces, but by a run of ordinary occurrences in which the trigger falls off the time traveller’s gun, a gust of wind pushes her bullet off course, she slips on a banana peel, and so on. But now consider this run of ordinary occurrences. Whenever the time traveller contemplates auto-infanticide, someone nearby will drop a banana peel ready for her to slip on, or a bird will begin to fly so that it will be in the path of the time traveller’s bullet by the time she fires, and so on. In general, there will be a correlation between auto-infanticide attempts and foiling occurrences such as the presence of banana peels—and this correlation will be of the type that does not involve a direct causal connection between the correlated events or a common cause of both. But extensive correlations of this sort are, as we saw, extremely rare—so backwards time travel will happen about as often as you will see two people wear the same outfits to class every day of semester, without there being any causal connection between what one wears and what the other wears.

We can set out Horwich’s argument this way:

• If time travel were ever to occur, we should see extensive uncaused correlations.
• It is extremely unlikely that we should ever see extensive uncaused correlations.
• Therefore time travel is extremely unlikely to occur.

The conclusion is not that time travel is impossible, but that we should treat it the way we treat the possibility of, say, tossing a fair coin and getting heads one thousand times in a row. As Price (1996, 278 n.7) puts it—in the context of endorsing Horwich’s conclusion: “the hypothesis of time travel can be made to imply propositions of arbitrarily low probability. This is not a classical reductio, but it is as close as science ever gets.”

Smith (1997) attacks both premisses of Horwich’s argument. Against the first premise, he argues that backwards time travel, in itself, does not entail extensive uncaused correlations. Rather, when we look more closely, we see that time travel scenarios involving extensive uncaused correlations always build in prior coincidences which are themselves highly unlikely. Against the second premise, he argues that, from the fact that we have never seen extensive uncaused correlations, it does not follow that we never shall. This is not inductive scepticism: let us assume (contra the inductive sceptic) that in the absence of any specific reason for thinking things should be different in the future, we are entitled to assume they will continue being the same; still we cannot dismiss a specific reason for thinking the future will be a certain way simply on the basis that things have never been that way in the past. You might reassure an anxious friend that the sun will certainly rise tomorrow because it always has in the past—but you cannot similarly refute an astronomer who claims to have discovered a specific reason for thinking that the earth will stop rotating overnight.

Sider (2002, 119–20) endorses Smith’s second objection. Dowe (2003) criticises Smith’s first objection, but agrees with the second, concluding overall that time travel has not been shown to be improbable. Ismael (2003) reaches a similar conclusion. Goddu (2007) criticises Smith’s first objection to Horwich. Further contributions to the debate include Arntzenius (2006), Smeenk and Wüthrich (2011, §2.2) and Elliott (2018). For other arguments to the same conclusion as Horwich’s—that time travel is improbable—see Ney (2000) and Effingham (2020).

Return again to the original version of the Grandfather paradox and Lewis’s ‘commonplace reasons’ response to it. This response engenders a further objection. The autoinfanticidal time traveller is attempting to do something impossible (render herself permanently dead from an age younger than her age at the time of the attempts). Suppose we accept that she will not succeed and that what will stop her is a succession of commonplace occurrences. The previous objection was that such a succession is improbable . The new objection is that the exclusion of the time traveler from successfully committing auto-infanticide is mysteriously inexplicable . The worry is as follows. Each particular event that foils the time traveller is explicable in a perfectly ordinary way; but the inevitable combination of these events amounts to a ring-fencing of the forbidden zone of autoinfanticide—and this ring-fencing is mystifying. It’s like a grand conspiracy to stop the time traveler from doing what she wants to do—and yet there are no conspirators: no time lords, no magical forces of logic. This is profoundly perplexing. Riggs (1997, 52) writes: “Lewis’s account may do for a once only attempt, but is untenable as a general explanation of Tim’s continual lack of success if he keeps on trying.” Ismael (2003, 308) writes: “Considered individually, there will be nothing anomalous in the explanations…It is almost irresistible to suppose, however, that there is something anomalous in the cases considered collectively, i.e., in our unfailing lack of success.” See also Gorovitz (1964, 366–7), Horwich (1987, 119–21) and Carroll (2010, 86).

There have been two different kinds of defense of time travel against the objection that it involves mysteriously inexplicable occurrences. Baron and Colyvan (2016, 70) agree with the objectors that a purely causal explanation of failure—e.g. Tim fails to kill Grandfather because first he slips on a banana peel, then his gun jams, and so on—is insufficient. However they argue that, in addition, Lewis offers a non-causal—a logical —explanation of failure: “What explains Tim’s failure to kill his grandfather, then, is something about logic; specifically: Tim fails to kill his grandfather because the law of non-contradiction holds.” Smith (2017) argues that the appearance of inexplicability is illusory. There are no scenarios satisfying the description ‘a time traveller commits autoinfanticide’ (or changes the past in any other way) because the description is self-contradictory (e.g. it involves the time traveller permanently dying at 20 and also being alive at 40). So whatever happens it will not be ‘that’. There is literally no way for the time traveller not to fail. Hence there is no need for—or even possibility of—a substantive explanation of why failure invariably occurs, and such failure is not perplexing.

3. Causation

Backwards time travel scenarios give rise to interesting issues concerning causation. In this section we examine two such issues.

Earlier we distinguished changing the past and affecting the past, and argued that while the former is impossible, backwards time travel need involve only the latter. Affecting the past would be an example of backwards causation (i.e. causation where the effect precedes its cause)—and it has been argued that this too is impossible, or at least problematic. [ 18 ] The classic argument against backwards causation is the bilking argument . [ 19 ] Faced with the claim that some event A causes an earlier event B , the proponent of the bilking objection recommends an attempt to decorrelate A and B —that is, to bring about A in cases in which B has not occurred, and to prevent A in cases in which B has occurred. If the attempt is successful, then B often occurs despite the subsequent nonoccurrence of A , and A often occurs without B occurring, and so A cannot be the cause of B . If, on the other hand, the attempt is unsuccessful—if, that is, A cannot be prevented when B has occurred, nor brought about when B has not occurred—then, it is argued, it must be B that is the cause of A , rather than vice versa.

The bilking procedure requires repeated manipulation of event A . Thus, it cannot get under way in cases in which A is either unrepeatable or unmanipulable. Furthermore, the procedure requires us to know whether or not B has occurred, prior to manipulating A —and thus, it cannot get under way in cases in which it cannot be known whether or not B has occurred until after the occurrence or nonoccurrence of A (Dummett, 1964). These three loopholes allow room for many claims of backwards causation that cannot be touched by the bilking argument, because the bilking procedure cannot be performed at all. But what about those cases in which it can be performed? If the procedure succeeds—that is, A and B are decorrelated—then the claim that A causes B is refuted, or at least weakened (depending upon the details of the case). But if the bilking attempt fails, it does not follow that it must be B that is the cause of A , rather than vice versa. Depending upon the situation, that B causes A might become a viable alternative to the hypothesis that A causes B —but there is no reason to think that this alternative must always be the superior one. For example, suppose that I see a photo of you in a paper dated well before your birth, accompanied by a report of your arrival from the future. I now try to bilk your upcoming time trip—but I slip on a banana peel while rushing to push you away from your time machine, my time travel horror stories only inspire you further, and so on. Or again, suppose that I know that you were not in Sydney yesterday. I now try to get you to go there in your time machine—but first I am struck by lightning, then I fall down a manhole, and so on. What does all this prove? Surely not that your arrival in the past causes your departure from the future. Depending upon the details of the case, it seems that we might well be entitled to describe it as involving backwards time travel and backwards causation. At least, if we are not so entitled, this must be because of other facts about the case: it would not follow simply from the repeated coincidental failures of my bilking attempts.

Backwards time travel would apparently allow for the possibility of causal loops, in which things come from nowhere. The things in question might be objects—imagine a time traveller who steals a time machine from the local museum in order to make his time trip and then donates the time machine to the same museum at the end of the trip (i.e. in the past). In this case the machine itself is never built by anyone—it simply exists. The things in question might be information—imagine a time traveller who explains the theory behind time travel to her younger self: theory that she herself knows only because it was explained to her in her youth by her time travelling older self. The things in question might be actions. Imagine a time traveller who visits his younger self. When he encounters his younger self, he suddenly has a vivid memory of being punched on the nose by a strange visitor. He realises that this is that very encounter—and resignedly proceeds to punch his younger self. Why did he do it? Because he knew that it would happen and so felt that he had to do it—but he only knew it would happen because he in fact did it. [ 20 ]

One might think that causal loops are impossible—and hence that insofar as backwards time travel entails such loops, it too is impossible. [ 21 ] There are two issues to consider here. First, does backwards time travel entail causal loops? Lewis (1976, 148) raises the question whether there must be causal loops whenever there is backwards causation; in response to the question, he says simply “I am not sure.” Mellor (1998, 131) appears to claim a positive answer to the question. [ 22 ] Hanley (2004, 130) defends a negative answer by telling a time travel story in which there is backwards time travel and backwards causation, but no causal loops. [ 23 ] Monton (2009) criticises Hanley’s counterexample, but also defends a negative answer via different counterexamples. Effingham (2020) too argues for a negative answer.

Second, are causal loops impossible, or in some other way objectionable? One objection is that causal loops are inexplicable . There have been two main kinds of response to this objection. One is to agree but deny that this is a problem. Lewis (1976, 149) accepts that a loop (as a whole) would be inexplicable—but thinks that this inexplicability (like that of the Big Bang or the decay of a tritium atom) is merely strange, not impossible. In a similar vein, Meyer (2012, 263) argues that if someone asked for an explanation of a loop (as a whole), “the blame would fall on the person asking the question, not on our inability to answer it.” The second kind of response (Hanley, 2004, §5) is to deny that (all) causal loops are inexplicable. A second objection to causal loops, due to Mellor (1998, ch.12), is that in such loops the chances of events would fail to be related to their frequencies in accordance with the law of large numbers. Berkovitz (2001) and Dowe (2001) both argue that Mellor’s objection fails to establish the impossibility of causal loops. [ 24 ] Effingham (2020) considers—and rebuts—some additional objections to the possibility of causal loops.

4. Time and Change

Gödel (1949a [1990a])—in which Gödel presents models of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity in which there exist CTC’s—can well be regarded as initiating the modern academic literature on time travel, in both philosophy and physics. In a companion paper, Gödel discusses the significance of his results for more general issues in the philosophy of time (Gödel 1949b [1990b]). For the succeeding half century, the time travel literature focussed predominantly on objections to the possibility (or probability) of time travel. More recently, however, there has been renewed interest in the connections between time travel and more general issues in the metaphysics of time and change. We examine some of these in the present section. [ 25 ]

The first thing that we need to do is set up the various metaphysical positions whose relationships with time travel will then be discussed. Consider two metaphysical questions:

• Are the past, present and future equally real?
• Is there an objective flow or passage of time, and an objective now?

We can label some views on the first question as follows. Eternalism is the view that past and future times, objects and events are just as real as the present time and present events and objects. Nowism is the view that only the present time and present events and objects exist. Now-and-then-ism is the view that the past and present exist but the future does not. We can also label some views on the second question. The A-theory answers in the affirmative: the flow of time and division of events into past (before now), present (now) and future (after now) are objective features of reality (as opposed to mere features of our experience). Furthermore, they are linked: the objective flow of time arises from the movement, through time, of the objective now (from the past towards the future). The B-theory answers in the negative: while we certainly experience now as special, and time as flowing, the B-theory denies that what is going on here is that we are detecting objective features of reality in a way that corresponds transparently to how those features are in themselves. The flow of time and the now are not objective features of reality; they are merely features of our experience. By combining answers to our first and second questions we arrive at positions on the metaphysics of time such as: [ 26 ]

• the block universe view: eternalism + B-theory
• the moving spotlight view: eternalism + A-theory
• the presentist view: nowism + A-theory
• the growing block view: now-and-then-ism + A-theory.

So much for positions on time itself. Now for some views on temporal objects: objects that exist in (and, in general, change over) time. Three-dimensionalism is the view that persons, tables and other temporal objects are three-dimensional entities. On this view, what you see in the mirror is a whole person. [ 27 ] Tomorrow, when you look again, you will see the whole person again. On this view, persons and other temporal objects are wholly present at every time at which they exist. Four-dimensionalism is the view that persons, tables and other temporal objects are four-dimensional entities, extending through three dimensions of space and one dimension of time. On this view, what you see in the mirror is not a whole person: it is just a three-dimensional temporal part of a person. Tomorrow, when you look again, you will see a different such temporal part. Say that an object persists through time if it is around at some time and still around at a later time. Three- and four-dimensionalists agree that (some) objects persist, but they differ over how objects persist. According to three-dimensionalists, objects persist by enduring : an object persists from t 1 to t 2 by being wholly present at t 1 and t 2 and every instant in between. According to four-dimensionalists, objects persist by perduring : an object persists from t 1 to t 2 by having temporal parts at t 1 and t 2 and every instant in between. Perduring can be usefully compared with being extended in space: a road extends from Melbourne to Sydney not by being wholly located at every point in between, but by having a spatial part at every point in between.

It is natural to combine three-dimensionalism with presentism and four-dimensionalism with the block universe view—but other combinations of views are certainly possible.

Gödel (1949b [1990b]) argues from the possibility of time travel (more precisely, from the existence of solutions to the field equations of General Relativity in which there exist CTC’s) to the B-theory: that is, to the conclusion that there is no objective flow or passage of time and no objective now. Gödel begins by reviewing an argument from Special Relativity to the B-theory: because the notion of simultaneity becomes a relative one in Special Relativity, there is no room for the idea of an objective succession of “nows”. He then notes that this argument is disrupted in the context of General Relativity, because in models of the latter theory to date, the presence of matter does allow recovery of an objectively distinguished series of “nows”. Gödel then proposes a new model (Gödel 1949a [1990a]) in which no such recovery is possible. (This is the model that contains CTC’s.) Finally, he addresses the issue of how one can infer anything about the nonexistence of an objective flow of time in our universe from the existence of a merely possible universe in which there is no objectively distinguished series of “nows”. His main response is that while it would not be straightforwardly contradictory to suppose that the existence of an objective flow of time depends on the particular, contingent arrangement and motion of matter in the world, this would nevertheless be unsatisfactory. Responses to Gödel have been of two main kinds. Some have objected to the claim that there is no objective flow of time in his model universe (e.g. Savitt (2005); see also Savitt (1994)). Others have objected to the attempt to transfer conclusions about that model universe to our own universe (e.g. Earman (1995, 197–200); for a partial response to Earman see Belot (2005, §3.4)). [ 28 ]

Earlier we posed two questions:

Gödel’s argument is related to the second question. Let’s turn now to the first question. Godfrey-Smith (1980, 72) writes “The metaphysical picture which underlies time travel talk is that of the block universe [i.e. eternalism, in the terminology of the present entry], in which the world is conceived as extended in time as it is in space.” In his report on the Analysis problem to which Godfrey-Smith’s paper is a response, Harrison (1980, 67) replies that he would like an argument in support of this assertion. Here is an argument: [ 29 ]

A fundamental requirement for the possibility of time travel is the existence of the destination of the journey. That is, a journey into the past or the future would have to presuppose that the past or future were somehow real. (Grey, 1999, 56)

Dowe (2000, 442–5) responds that the destination does not have to exist at the time of departure: it only has to exist at the time of arrival—and this is quite compatible with non-eternalist views. And Keller and Nelson (2001, 338) argue that time travel is compatible with presentism:

There is four-dimensional [i.e. eternalist, in the terminology of the present entry] time-travel if the appropriate sorts of events occur at the appropriate sorts of times; events like people hopping into time-machines and disappearing, people reappearing with the right sorts of memories, and so on. But the presentist can have just the same patterns of events happening at just the same times. Or at least, it can be the case on the presentist model that the right sorts of events will happen, or did happen, or are happening, at the rights sorts of times. If it suffices for four-dimensionalist time-travel that Jennifer disappears in 2054 and appears in 1985 with the right sorts of memories, then why shouldn’t it suffice for presentist time-travel that Jennifer will disappear in 2054, and that she did appear in 1985 with the right sorts of memories?

Sider (2005) responds that there is still a problem reconciling presentism with time travel conceived in Lewis’s way: that conception of time travel requires that personal time is similar to external time—but presentists have trouble allowing this. Further contributions to the debate whether presentism—and other versions of the A-theory—are compatible with time travel include Monton (2003), Daniels (2012), Hall (2014) and Wasserman (2018) on the side of compatibility, and Miller (2005), Slater (2005), Miller (2008), Hales (2010) and Markosian (2020) on the side of incompatibility.

Leibniz’s Law says that if x = y (i.e. x and y are identical—one and the same entity) then x and y have exactly the same properties. There is a superficial conflict between this principle of logic and the fact that things change. If Bill is at one time thin and at another time not so—and yet it is the very same person both times—it looks as though the very same entity (Bill) both possesses and fails to possess the property of being thin. Three-dimensionalists and four-dimensionalists respond to this problem in different ways. According to the four-dimensionalist, what is thin is not Bill (who is a four-dimensional entity) but certain temporal parts of Bill; and what is not thin are other temporal parts of Bill. So there is no single entity that both possesses and fails to possess the property of being thin. Three-dimensionalists have several options. One is to deny that there are such properties as ‘thin’ (simpliciter): there are only temporally relativised properties such as ‘thin at time t ’. In that case, while Bill at t 1 and Bill at t 2 are the very same entity—Bill is wholly present at each time—there is no single property that this one entity both possesses and fails to possess: Bill possesses the property ‘thin at t 1 ’ and lacks the property ‘thin at t 2 ’. [ 30 ]

Now consider the case of a time traveller Ben who encounters his younger self at time t . Suppose that the younger self is thin and the older self not so. The four-dimensionalist can accommodate this scenario easily. Just as before, what we have are two different three-dimensional parts of the same four-dimensional entity, one of which possesses the property ‘thin’ and the other of which does not. The three-dimensionalist, however, faces a problem. Even if we relativise properties to times, we still get the contradiction that Ben possesses the property ‘thin at t ’ and also lacks that very same property. [ 31 ] There are several possible options for the three-dimensionalist here. One is to relativise properties not to external times but to personal times (Horwich, 1975, 434–5); another is to relativise properties to spatial locations as well as to times (or simply to spacetime points). Sider (2001, 101–6) criticises both options (and others besides), concluding that time travel is incompatible with three-dimensionalism. Markosian (2004) responds to Sider’s argument; [ 32 ] Miller (2006) also responds to Sider and argues for the compatibility of time travel and endurantism; Gilmore (2007) seeks to weaken the case against endurantism by constructing analogous arguments against perdurantism. Simon (2005) finds problems with Sider’s arguments, but presents different arguments for the same conclusion; Effingham and Robson (2007) and Benovsky (2011) also offer new arguments for this conclusion. For further discussion see Wasserman (2018) and Effingham (2020). [ 33 ]

We have seen arguments to the conclusions that time travel is impossible, improbable and inexplicable. Here’s an argument to the conclusion that backwards time travel simply will not occur. If backwards time travel is ever going to occur, we would already have seen the time travellers—but we have seen none such. [ 34 ] The argument is a weak one. [ 35 ] For a start, it is perhaps conceivable that time travellers have already visited the Earth [ 36 ] —but even granting that they have not, this is still compatible with the future actuality of backwards time travel. First, it may be that time travel is very expensive, difficult or dangerous—or for some other reason quite rare—and that by the time it is available, our present period of history is insufficiently high on the list of interesting destinations. Second, it may be—and indeed existing proposals in the physics literature have this feature—that backwards time travel works by creating a CTC that lies entirely in the future: in this case, backwards time travel becomes possible after the creation of the CTC, but travel to a time earlier than the time at which the CTC is created is not possible. [ 37 ]

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causation: backward | free will: divine foreknowledge and | identity: over time | location and mereology | temporal parts | time | time machines | time travel: and modern physics

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• For purposes of official travel for DOE all officials are required to use a Diplomatic or Official  passport for a number of reasons:
• A Diplomatic or Official visa cannot be stamped into a tourist passport.
• A visa will not be granted for entry into a foreign country when the reason for travel to that country is stated as official business and the tourist passport is presented.
• Some countries will deny entry at the border to individuals entering the country on official government business when they arrive with only a tourist passport and not the official passport.  Further problems may also occur upon departure from that country.
• Violation of Sovereignty.  Use of the tourist passport when traveling in an official capacity misrepresents the true purpose for which the traveler has entered the country.  This can have serious and adverse affects on the U.S. reciprocal relations with foreign countries.
• Security concerns. Should there be a problem which in the host country, the official passport provides quicker access to officials of the host country government and greater protection.
• Travelers need to be 99.9% certain of itinerary.
• The closer to departure date, the higher the price of a non-refundable ticket.
• Non-refundable airfares should be ticketed within 24 hours of booking; however, this does not guarantee the airfare will be available.  Carrier tariff’s change frequently throughout a 24-hour period and are never guaranteed until ticketed.
• All non-refundable tickets should be purchased on the CBA.

PROGRAM OFFICE ACCOUNTABILITY The employee and approving official are to be fully aware of all of the terms and conditions of the ticket.

The program office and approving official are responsible for ensuring that the ticket is reused for official business on a future trip and is not used by the employee for personal use in the unanticipated event that the ticket is not used for the planned trip.

• Non-refundable seats are NOT upgradable.
• Non-refundable seat maps are very limited, so seats may not be desirable by the traveler.

TRAVEL AUTHORIZATION

Travel authorization must provide a justification for use of the non-contract.

UNUSED NON-REFUNDABLE TICKET VALUES

Non-refundable is exactly that – if a traveler does not travel, or does not use all tickets, DOE will not receive a refund as such when using a contract fare.

Fully unused ticket – value of the ticket available usually 1 year from date of ticket issuance (not date of travel).  Some conditions vary.  Penalties and fees apply when fully unused ticket applied.

Outbound used, return unused – partial used tickets have NO value for future travel.

Only fully unused tickets will receive a credit, credits are not transferrable and only valid for one year from date of ticket issuance not dates of travel.

If the outbound is not taken, the return can never be used on a non-refundable ticket.  The carrier will negate the value of the ticket and show the reservation as “no-show.” 

Reservations must be cancelled or value of ticket is lost.  This applies to outbound and return segments.  If you are late for your outbound flight, the carrier will indicate traveler as a “no show.”

If a traveler leaves the Department before using the credit, cost for the unused return is lost.

For further information follow this link for the FAQs on non-refundable tickets .  

The Department of Energy provides insurance for DOE employees on official overseas travel.  The Office of Travel Management (MA-45) manages the Travel & Medical Insurance accounts for the Office of the Secretary, Deputy Secretary, and Under Secretary of Energy.  In addition, MA-45 provides information to DOE Program Offices regarding travel insurance services. The International plan includes the following coverage:

• Travel Insurance for International Travelers
• International Emergency Assistance
• 24 hour multilingual emergency medical and security assistance
• Evacuation and repatriation programs
• Customized global travel solutions, pre-travel advice and contingency planning

Click here to go to the Travel FAQs

MAAdm updated 04/10/24

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What Is a Personal Item and How Is it Different From a Carry-on Bag?

• Team Gravel
• Travel Tips

There are two types of luggage you can bring with you on the plane: a carry-on bag and a personal item. But what exactly is a personal item? And how is it different from a carry-on bag?

Let's find out.

What Counts as Personal Items on a Flight?

Generally speaking, a personal item is any compact bag, purse, or briefcase that can fit underneath the seat in front of you.

Below-seat storage varies by airline, but the industry standard is roughly 17 x 13 x 8 inches.

Some airlines will offer more or less under-seat storage than others. However, these differences are marginal.

For example, the personal item for Spirit Airlines is slightly more generous at 18 x 14 x 8 inches in size. On the other hand, Air France 's below-seat storage may limit you to 16 x 12 x 6 inches.

How Do I Know If My Personal Item Will Fit?

Any standard backpack, tote, or duffel bag should fit in the 17 x 13 x 8 inches of personal item space available on most flights. If you're unsure whether your bag will fit, the best way to find out is to measure it. Then, you can double-check the personal item size allowed for your airline.

The following mnemonic can help you remember the order in which to measure a backpack or similar bag: "Larry Was Here." That is, length first, width second, and height last.

Get a tape measure and lay your bag flat on a surface. The first two specs to measure—the length and the width—correspond to the horizontal dimensions of the bag. In other words, these sides are flush against the surface. "L" runs the length of the bag from top to bottom while "W" stretches across the bag from side to side.

After you've measured the length and width of the bag, it's time to measure its height, which corresponds to the bag's vertical dimension. This is an important measurement to grab; if the bag is too tall, it won't fit underneath the seat in front of you.

What Can I Pack in My Personal Item?

While personal items are smaller than rolling, carry-on luggage, you can still pack a lot in them. Many travelers choose to store items they might need to access easily during the flight such as:

• A passport and boarding pass
• Sweaters or scarves
• A travel blanket
• Noise-canceling headphones
• Books or magazines
• A toiletry bag
• Laptops, tablets, and other electronics
• A wallet, purse, or travel pouch

Other travel accessories , such as lip balm, a stain remover pen, or a travel utensil set, are also great for packing in your personal item bag.

Just remember: when packing liquids, gels, and aerosols in your travel backpack , stick to the TSA's 3-1-1 rule. That is, all liquids, gels, and aerosols must be in containers that are 3.4 ounces (100 milliliters) or less per item. These containers must then be stored in a single, clear, quart-sized bag for easy inspection.

Can I Bring a Carry-on Bag, Personal Item, and a Purse or Shopping Bag on the Plane?

Some airlines allow you to bring a carry-on bag, personal item, and a purse or shopping bag all at once. However, other airlines will only allow a carry-on bag plus one other item that can fit under the seat in front of you.

Some exceptions can be made for duty-free bags on international flights or diaper bags for families traveling with an infant, but these policies vary by airline.

It's always best to check with your airline in advance or inquire at the gate to find out what their specific rules are.

What if My Personal Item is Too Big?

If your personal item is too large to fit underneath the seat in front of you, some airlines may require you to check it or to place it in the overhead bin instead.

A pro tip? Traveling with a packable sling belt can help you store in-flight essentials in case you need to gate-check your personal item at the last minute. These belts have a variety of pockets that can hold important items like your passport and phone. They also leave you with extra legroom since you won't have a bag taking up space at your feet.

What are your favorite personal items to travel with? Let us know in the comments section below. And for more travel tips and packing hacks, be sure to check out the rest of the Gravel Travels blog.

Happy travels!

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UNCLASSIFIED (U)

OFFICIAL TRAVEL

(CT:LOG-343;   02-11-2022) (Office of Origin:  A/LM)

14 FAM 531  EmploymenT and Assignment Travel

(CT:LOG-343;   02-11-2022) (State/USAGM/USAID/Commerce/Agriculture)

When two or more types of travel are combined, the pertinent provisions apply separately to each segment of the trip.  Types of official travel follow below.

14 FAM 531.1  Appointment Travel

a. Official travel and transportation for U.S. citizen employees, their families, and effects, may be authorized from place or places of residence or other place specifically authorized to official duty station.

b. Effects may be authorized to be shipped at U.S. Government expense from place of storage.  Shipment of effects is authorized for employees whose tour of duty at post is one year or more or who serve less than a year and are transferred or otherwise removed from post for the convenience of the U.S. Government (see 3 FAM 2440 regarding curtailments).

14 FAM 531.2  Alternate-Seat-of-Government Travel

a. Official travel and transportation for U.S. citizen employees, their families, and effects, may be authorized to and from the alternate seat of government.

b. There is no per diem at destination unless specifically authorized. Shipment and storage of effects, and privately owned vehicle, may be authorized.

14 FAM 531.3  Relocation Travel

Official travel and transportation may be authorized for employees to move from one official duty station to another.  This includes permanent change-of-station (PCS) and transfer moves.

14 FAM 531.4  Home Leave Travel

a. Official travel and transportation may be authorized for U.S. citizen employees and their families from post or any place abroad where presence is due to U.S. Government orders to home leave address within the United States (or U.S. commonwealth or possessions) and return to post of assignment or a new official duty station.  Home leave travel is not authorized for family members already on separate maintenance allowance (SMA) authorization (see also 14 FAM 536.1 ).

b. Employees and their families traveling should spend 20 workdays in the United States (see 3 FAM 3434.2 for exceptions).  Except as provided in 14 FAM 532.4 the family may not travel until the employee is eligible for home leave and has been issued home leave orders.

14 FAM 531.5  Rest and Recuperation Travel

a. Travel of an employee and eligible family members may be authorized and performed in accordance with 14 FAM 523.2-1 , subparagraph f(1)(d) and in 3 FAM 3720 .

b. Each post eligible for rest and recuperation (R&R) travel will fund one of the following three travel options to employees and eligible family members:

(1) Round-trip travel to post's designated foreign relief point.  Lists of eligible posts by regional area and their designated relief points are in 3 FAH-1 Exhibit H-3722(1) through 3 FAH-1 Exhibit H-3722(5) ; or

(2)  Round-trip travel to any one city in the United States (the 50 States and the District of Columbia) or one city in its territories including American Samoa, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands; or

c.  Only the designated foreign relief point, the traveler's selected city in the United States or U.S. territory, or "R&R Cost-Construct Cap" can be shown as the destination on the authorized itinerary of the R&R travel authorization.

e.  Employees authorized premium class travel through MED/DRAD will have a cost-construct cap established on a case-by-case basis using the same methodology used for economy caps outlined in 3 FAH-1 H-3726.3 .

f.  The Department recommends that posts use the lowest cost unrestricted airfares for travel to the designated relief point or U.S. city or U.S territory.  However, funding for R&R travel is a post function and, as such, the final decision whether to use restricted or unrestricted fares for R&R travel is a post responsibility.

14 FAM 531.6  Marine Security Guard

See 12 FAM 435 .

14 FAM 531.7  Military Furlough, Resignation, Retirement, and Other Separation Travel

a. Official travel and transportation may be authorized for U.S. citizen employees, their eligible family members, and effects, from post or any place where presence is due to U.S. Government orders to designated place of residence in the United States (see definition of "United States" in 14 FAM 511.3 ).

b. When a U.S. citizen employee elects to reside at other than the designated place of residence, expenses must be allowed based on constructive cost (for "cost constructed travel," see 14 FAM 511.3 and 14 FAM 612.3 ) to designated place of residence in the United States.  See 3 FAM 2510 on separation of U.S. citizen employees and 3 FAM 2560 on military furlough.

c.  This regulation provides Civil Service employees, who mandatorily converted to Civil Service from Foreign Service under the Foreign Service Act of 1980, those benefits of travel and/or transportation of effects to which they were entitled at the time of such mandatory conversion.

14 FAM 532  Family tRAVEL

14 FAM 532.1  Family Travel for Representational Purposes

14 FAM 532.1-1  Eligibility and Purpose

Travel for representational purposes may be authorized for one family member only.  The authorizing officer is expected to make sparing and judicious use of this authorization.  In all cases, the justification must demonstrate a clear advantage to the United States.

14 FAM 532.1-2  Within Country of Assignment

a. As a general guideline, local travel of a family member should be authorized when:

(1)  Representation by the officer alone could not be accomplished effectively; or

(2)  Protocol or local customs would be served; or

(3)  The travel is necessary in connection with VIP visits or important meetings at which spouses of foreign dignitaries are present.

b. The chief of mission in consultation with heads of other agencies in their country of assignment will develop local rules and practices to promote the maximum degree of uniformity in the exercise of this authority.

14 FAM 532.1-3  Outside Country of Assignment

Representational travel outside the country of assignment is restricted to family members of high-level officers and will be authorized only when a clear need for dual representation exists.  Normally, travel will be restricted to eligible family members of chiefs of mission, deputy chiefs of mission, country public affairs officers, and USAID mission directors or USAID representatives.  However, in exceptional circumstances, the eligible family members of a subordinate officer may be authorized such travel.  Typical of the circumstances warranting representational travel outside the country are the following:

(1)  When an ambassador or USAID mission director accompanies a foreign dignitary to the United States on a state visit or as a presidential guest and the dignitary is accompanied by a spouse or other members of the household;

(2)  When a State, or USAID officer attends an international conference or meeting sponsored by a group or organization of nations, such as the United Nations, and the spouses of participants have also been invited to attend; and

(3)  When the President sends U.S. delegations abroad or congressional or other high-level delegations proceed abroad, accompanied by their spouses.

14 FAM 532.1-4  Domestic-Based Employees

Representational travel by family members of domestically assigned employees is restricted to the Secretary, Deputy Secretary, Deputy Secretary for Management and Resources, and Under Secretaries, unless a waiver is granted by M, and will be authorized only when a clear need for such representation exists.

14 FAM 532.1-5  Authorization and Documentation

a. Department of State : The chief of mission may (subject to the availability of travel funds) authorize representational travel within and/or outside the country of assignment for employees at post.  This authority may be redelegated only to the deputy chief of mission.  The Assistant Secretary of the regional bureau may authorize for the chief of mission.  For representational travel outside the country of assignment, advance approval must also be obtained from the assistant secretary of the regional bureau.  For domestic based employees, the Under Secretary for Management must approve all representational travel for family members.  Representational travel by a family member of M must be approved by D.

b. USAID :  The director of the USAID mission or USAID representative may (subject to the availability of travel funds) authorize representational travel within and/or outside the country of assignment.  This authority may not be redelegated. For representational travel outside the country of assignment, advance approval must also be obtained from the regional bureau Assistant Administrator in Washington.

c. The officials cited above must provide and sign a justification statement.  For control and inspection purposes, the authorizing officer should record and file the justification statement in the Department's eTravel Services (ETS) software (currently E2 Solutions).

14 FAM 532.2  Adding New Eligible Family Members

Employees who wish to add a new eligible family member – EFM - (see 14 FAM 511.3 for the definition of "eligible family member") do so by completing Form OF-126, Foreign Service Residency and Dependent Report, to GTM/EX/IDSD or HCTM/FSC for USAID staff.  Once the new EFM is added to the Form OF-126 then the employee’s travel authorization will be updated to include new EFM and travel expenses may be incurred based on the updated travel authorization, notwithstanding the time limitation specified in 14 FAM 584.2 .  Travel will be authorized from either the location at which the new EFM joined the family (for example, place of birth or adoption) or from the employee’s official home of record.  Shipment and storage of additional effects may be authorized in accordance with 14 FAM 613.2 .

14 FAM 532.3  Advance Return of Family Financed by U.S. Government

14 FAM 532.3-1  General Policy

In certain cases, an employee's family may be authorized, before the employee's eligibility for travel, to return to employee's residence in the United States.

14 FAM 532.3-2  Conditions of Authorization

a. The Department of State, USAGM, Commerce, Agriculture, or the USAID mission director or USAID representative may authorize advance travel of an employee's family members when the chief of mission or the head of the agency establishment abroad determines that the public interest requires the return of a member of the family for compelling personal reasons of a humanitarian or compassionate nature, including but not limited to cases which may involve physical or mental health or death of any member of the immediate family.

b. The Department or Agency in Washington, DC, may authorize advance travel of family members when there is an obligation imposed by an authority or circumstances over which the individual has no control.  Advance travel may be authorized by the Department or Agency in Washington, DC, after family members have been at the post at least 6 months under the following conditions:

(1)  A child who is not eligible for educational travel (see 14 FAM 532.5 ) has been at a post abroad and educational needs (for the equivalent of grades 1 through 8 only) so require; or

(2)  A child 21 years or older, is unmarried, and has traveled to the post before attaining such age (see 14 FAM 532.6 ).

14 FAM 532.3-3  Authorized Costs

Only one-way transportation will be authorized for advance return of family.  If a family member subsequently travels at U.S. Government expense to the same or another post to which the employee is assigned, the total cost of the advance return and subsequent travel may not exceed the cost which would have been incurred had the family member traveled at the same time as the employee.

14 FAM 532.3-4  Repayment Agreement

Before any obligation of U.S. Government funds is incurred, the employee must execute a repayment agreement in accordance with the format in Form DS-4020, Repayment Agreement for Advance Travel of Family.  The original and one copy should be forwarded to:

(1)  State :  GTM/CDA, by memorandum, subject:  APER;

(2)  USAID :  M/PM, USAID/W as an attachment to a memorandum;

(3)  Commerce : USFCS/OIO/OFSP as an attachment to a memorandum;

(4)  USAGM :  E/O, P/N, VOA/X, and D/OHR as an attachment to a memorandum.

(5)  USDA/FAS :  Foreign Agricultural Affairs, International Services Division; and

(6)  APHIS :  International Services/Administrative Services/Personnel.

14 FAM 532.3-5  Repayment Requirements

The conditions under which repayment must be made by the employee for travel expenses borne by the U.S. Government in connection with the advance return of employee's family are as follows:

(1)  The employee fails to complete the service period (see 3 FAH-1 H-2423 , subparagraph c) required to become eligible for travel and transportation at U.S. Government expense; or

(2)  There is a change of dependency status which cancels the eligibility of family member(s) for return travel to the United States (see definition in 14 FAM 511.3 ) at U.S. Government expense.  (A divorce or an annulment prior to the issuance of travel orders no longer cancels eligibility of family members for return travel to the United States.)

14 FAM 532.3-6  Repayment Liquidation or Refund

(CT:LOG-343;   02-11-2022) (State/USAGM/USAID/Commerce/Agriculture)

If the employee is subsequently transferred, assigned, separated, or returned on leave at U.S. Government expense to the United States and the expenses of the advance travel become a proper obligation of the U.S. Government, the employee will be relieved of the obligation set forth in the repayment agreements to the amount of allowable expenses (see 14 FAM 532.3-4 ).  If the employee has previously made repayment, employee may request and receive an appropriate refund.

14 FAM 532.4  Advance Travel of Family Financed by the Employee

a. The employee may arrange for advance travel of family, paying the cost initially and claiming reimbursement after the employee has been issued travel authorization which covers the travel of family and after the employee has reached eligibility date.  Reimbursement is limited to the amounts payable had the family traveled at the same time as the employee.

b. Reimbursement may be made for advance travel or return travel to the United States for a spouse or domestic partner as defined in 3FAM 1610 and/or minor children of an employee who have traveled to the post as eligible family members even if, because of divorce, annulment or dissolution of domestic partnership, such spouse or domestic partner as defined in 3 FAM 1610 and/or minor children have ceased to be eligible family members as of the date the employee becomes eligible for travel.  Reimbursable travel may not be deferred more than 6 months after the employee completes personal travel pursuant to the authorization.

c.  If the advance travel of family was to the employee's temporary duty (TDY) post and the employee was transferred to the post at the end of the employee's TDY, employee may claim reimbursement for expenses of allowable travel and transportation of family and effects which were incurred prior to the effective date of transfer of the employee and the date of employee's transfer travel authorization.

14 FAM 532.5  Educational Travel

a. Travel of a child may be authorized in lieu of an educational allowance, once each way annually between school and the employee's post for secondary education and for college education in accordance with section 280, Standardized Regulations (Government Civilians, Foreign Areas) and the Federal Travel Regulations.

b. Unaccompanied air baggage is allowable in accordance with 14 FAM 613.3-1 .

14 FAM 532.6  Travel of Children 21 Years of Age or Older

a. An employee's child who is unmarried and who is 21 years of age or older may be authorized return travel to the employee's place of residence for separation purposes in the United States (see definition in 14 FAM 511.3 ), provided the child, when attaining the age of 21 was at, or proceeding to, a post abroad to which the employee was assigned.  The first travel authorization that is issued to the employee authorizing travel of the family after a child has reached the age of 21, constitutes authority for such travel.  The return of the child to the United States should be completed within 1 year of the date the employee's travel begins.

b. A child 21 years or older, who proceeds to the employee's post, may not be returned to the United States nor perform any travel at U.S. Government expense, except as provided for educational travel up to the 23rd birthday, plus additional years allowed for any military service, in subchapter 280 of the Standardized Regulations (Government Civilians, Foreign Areas).

c.  Travel of a child who is under 21 will usually be authorized to an employee's next assignment if the employee's transfer is to occur before the child's 21st birthday.  If that child's travel does not commence prior to turning 21, that authorization is no longer valid.

d. If a child commences R&R or home leave/return travel before attaining the age of 21 and turns 21 while in travel status, the child is authorized return to post under the travel authorization that was in effect prior to his turning 21.

14 FAM 532.7  Travel of Family While Employee Is on Temporary Duty (TDY) En Route to or from Post of Assignment

a. Payment of per diem during an employee's period of TDY, which may not exceed 30 calendar days total, is authorized for members of an employee's family accompanying the employee to the post of assignment only under the following conditions:

(1)  When the employee is ordered to stop within the country of destination for orientation, training, or consultation while en route to post of assignment;

(2)  When the employee is ordered to stopover outside the country of destination for orientation, training, or other TDY while en route to the post of assignment, provided that the stopover is in the positive interest of the U.S. Government and is made necessary by a threat to the health, safety, or well-being of the employee’s family if required to continue on to post of assignment other than in the company of the employee;

(3)  In cases where the family member, because of representative responsibility in the U.S. Government's interest, is required to stop at agency headquarters while en route abroad to employee's post of assignment in order to undergo special orientation and/or training designed to ensure the effective discharge of those responsibilities; or

(4)  In any other cases when specifically authorized by the agency in advance in writing in travel orders.

b. When an employee is ordered to stop for TDY in the United States or abroad en route to or from employee's post of assignment, the family does not have to accompany the employee as long as they join the employee at the stopover point.  Per diem at the stopover point may be allowed for members of the family only during the period of TDY of the employee and for the actual time at the TDY location.

c.  Per diem, not to exceed 3 work days, may be authorized when an employee or the employee's family members who are at a constituent post and are traveling on home leave, transfer, or separation orders must stop, at the time of travel, at the Embassy in country or at an embassy in a neighboring country for the purpose of storing or retrieving effects or obtaining passports, visas, or immunizations.

d. Stopovers should generally not be authorized for family members in connection with international, interagency, interregional, or intermission conferences, unless specifically authorized by the agency in advance in writing and reflected in travel orders.

14 FAM 532.8  Return Travel of Spouse, Domestic Partner as Defined in 3 FAM 1610, and/or Dependent Children to the United States in Connection with Marital Separation, or Divorce, or Statement of Dissolution of Domestic Partnership

a. Return travel of an employee's spouse or domestic partner as defined in 3 FAM 1610 may be authorized to the employee's service separation address in the United States (see definition of "United States" in 14 FAM 511.3 ) or any other location on a cost-constructive basis from the employee's post of origin to the employee's separation address when a permanent marital separation or divorce is intended, or a statement of dissolution of domestic partnership has been submitted.  Generally, a separation agreement should exist, but in the absence of an agreement, the chief of mission or head of agency's establishment abroad may determine that such travel is warranted and may initiate authorization action.  The circumstances upon which this determination is based should be summarized in writing and retained at post in accordance with 5 FAH-4, Records Management Handbook.

b. Return travel of spouse or domestic partner as defined in 3 FAM 1610 may be included in the first travel authorization issued to the employee authorizing travel of the family after an agreement to separate, divorce, or dissolve a domestic partnership is reached.  In the circumstances referred to in paragraph a of this section, such travel may also be requested as advance travel in accordance with 14 FAM 532.3 and 14 FAM 532.4 .

c.  Only one-way transportation to the employee's service separation address, or to any other location in the United States on a cost-constructive basis from the employee's post of origin to his or her separation address, will be authorized for return travel of spouse or domestic partner as defined in 3 FAM 1610 .  If the employee subsequently requests travel of the spouse at U.S. Government expense to the same or another post to which the employee is assigned, the total cost of the return and subsequent travel may not exceed the cost which would have been incurred had the spouse or domestic partner as defined in 3 FAM 1610 traveled at the same time as the employee.  In such cases, if the cost of the return and subsequent travel exceeds the employee's authorized travel, the employee will be liable for payment of the excess cost.

d. Before any expenses are incurred for return travel of spouse or domestic partner as defined in 3 FAM 1610 , the spouse or domestic partner as defined in 3 FAM 1610 must execute an agreement in accordance with the format in Form DS-4021, Agreement for Return Travel of Spouse (or domestic partner).  This agreement states that the spouse or domestic partner as defined in 3 FAM 1610 understands that travel back to the same post will not be authorized at U.S. Government expense, and that the agreement is signed voluntarily.

e. Travel of dependent children of an employee may be authorized under this provision only if a legal custody agreement exists or the employee otherwise agrees in writing to permit the children to leave post permanently with the spouse.  The employee must also submit a revised Form OF-126, Foreign Service Residence and Dependency Report, to declare as a loss those children for whom return travel is requested under this provision (see 3 FAH-1 H-2347.8 , subparagraph a).  The employee may also request advance travel of children in accordance with 14 FAM 532.3 , if travel is not intended to be a permanent return to the United States.

14 FAM 532.9  Transfer Travel

(CT:LOG-343;   02-11-2022) (State/USAGM/USAID/Commerce/Agriculture) (Foreign Service)

a. Official travel and transportation may be authorized for U.S. citizen and Foreign Service national employees, their families and effects, from old post, or any place where presence is due to U.S. Government orders, to new post.  Transportation of effects is allowed from old post to new post and/or to point of storage; or to new post from old post, previous posts, and/or points of authorized storage.

b. Effects may be shipped between places other than those authorized subject to provisions in 14 FAM 612.3 .  When emergency conditions exist at the new post, another destination may be designated for travel of the family and transportation and storage of effects and a motor vehicle.  Upon termination of the emergency, travel and transportation to the new post may be authorized.

14 FAM 532.10  Spouse Travel to Obtain a Visa or Reset Residency

Management officials at post may authorize, from post funds, travel expenses when the spouse of an employee assigned to post must travel out of country to obtain appropriate visas or reset residency permissions to remain in-country when the host government will not accredit the spouse.  The travel expenses under this provision may include transportation expenses, per diem, and authorized miscellaneous expenses (e.g., visa fees, where authorized under 14 FAM 562.1 , subparagraphs a(1) through a(4).  Expenses incurred are for the spouse only.  Time in travel status should be minimized to the extent possible to obtain a visa or reset residency permissions at the most cost-effective point to post.  Spouses who are employed on family member appointments (FMA) or personal services agreements (PSA) are not authorized administrative leave for the purpose of the travel.

14 FAM 533  Temporary Duty (tdy) Travel

14 FAM 533.1  General

Official travel and transportation may be authorized for U.S. citizen employees from any place to TDY station or stations and thence to such place or to post (see also 14 FAM 532.7 covering travel of eligible family members). Official travel and transportation may be authorized for Locally Employed (LE) Staff from their post of employment to TDY station or stations and for return to the post of employment.

14 FAM 533.2  Authorizing Temporary Duty (TDY) Travel

a. State only :  Form JF-144, Temporary Duty (TDY) Official Travel Authorization, is used for approving TDY travel.  Approval may cover travel performed for administrative or medical purposes, rest and recuperation, short-term training, attendance at conferences, etc., between the United States and other countries, within the United States, or abroad.  Authorizations issued in the form of telegrams, etc., are confirmed by the subsequent issuance of a Form JF-144, or equivalent official form.

b. USAID only :  See ADS 522, Performance of Temporary Duty travel in the United States and Abroad.

c.  Commerce only :  Form CD-29, Travel Order, is used for authorizing TDY travel when headquarters, Washington, DC, issues the travel orders.  Otherwise, Form JF-144 is used when post issues the travel orders.  Included is travel for administrative purposes, rest and recuperation travel, short-term training, medical purposes, attendance at conferences, etc., performed abroad, within the United States, and between the United States and points abroad.  Authorizations issued in the form of telegrams are confirmed by the subsequent issuance of either a Form CD-29 or a Form JF-144.

d. USDA only :  Form AD-202, Travel Authorization, is used for authorizing TDY travel.

e. USAGM only :  Form IA-34-A is used for authorizing TDY travel; Form JF-144 is used for overseas correspondence travel.

14 FAM 533.3  Training Attendance

Official travel may be authorized for employees to receive training.

14 FAM 533.4  Conference Travel

14 FAM 533.4-1  Attendance

Agencies must select conference sites that minimize conference costs and conference attendees' travel costs.  Agencies must minimize conference attendees' travel costs by authorizing the minimum participation necessary to accomplish agency goals.  The authorizing official must assure that the number of attendees from the Department is necessary and justified.  In addition, the need for conference and meetings for which the total travel and per diem estimate exceeds $5,000 must be authorized by an Assistant Secretary, executive director, or equivalent.

14 FAM 533.4-2  Conference Site

When available, use U.S. Government-owned or U.S. Government-provided conference facilities to the maximum extent possible.  The authorizing officer should avoid conference sites that might appear extravagant to the public.

14 FAM 533.4-3  Conference Site Selection Process

a. Locality selection procedures :

(1)  When arranging to conduct a conference, the authorizing officer must consider at a minimum three alternative conference sites;

(2)  Each considered site must be selected based on the belief that it would result in lower overall conference costs and conference attendees' travel costs.  The sponsoring or co-sponsoring office must survey the cost of conference facilities at each of the considered sites, and must determine the potential cost to the U.S. Government of conducting the conference at each of the alternative sites.

b. Exception :  A conference site may be selected without following the procedures outlined above for the reason of disproportionate participation.  The procedures outlined above do not apply when a majority of the U.S. Government attendees are from the locality proposed as the conference site, or when only one site accomplishes conference goals.  In the latter case, the authorizing officer must certify in writing that the selected locality is the only conference site compatible with accomplishing the sponsoring or co-sponsoring office's objectives.

c.  Documentation :  The authorizing officer must document the cost of each alternative conference site, and must retain a record of the documentation for every conference held.  The authorizing officer must also make the documentation available for inspection by the Office of Inspector General (OIG), or for other interested parties.

14 FAM 533.5  Experts and Consultants Travel

Persons employed intermittently as consultants or experts and persons serving without compensation (including citizens or subjects of other countries) are authorized travel expenses, including per diem, while away from their homes or regular places of business, in accordance with 14 FAM 560 .

14 FAM 533.6  Information Meeting Travel

(CT:LOG-343;   02-11-2022) (State/USAGM/USAID/Commerce/Agriculture) (Foreign Service and Civil Service)

Official travel and transportation may be authorized for employees to attend a meeting to discuss general agency operations, and/or to review status reports or discussion topics of general interest.  If a site visit is conducted as part of the same trip, the entire trip should be considered a site visit (see 14 FAM 533.10 ).

14 FAM 533.7  International Conferences

When travel to, or in connection with, conferences is financed under Department of State appropriations available for international conferences, such travel must be performed in accordance with the provisions of the travel authorization and other appropriate instructions issued by the Department pertaining to the conference.

14 FAM 533.8  Invitational Travel Authorizations Federally Financed

Each invitational travel authorization must specify the purpose of the travel (e.g., conference attendance, information meeting, speech presentation, etc).

14 FAM 533.9  Invitational Travel Authorizations Non-Federally Financed

To defray the cost of air travel, any donations from non-Federal sources must comply with the Department's regulations in accommodations on airplanes ( 14 FAM 567.2 ), including all applicable OMB guidelines (OMB 93-11), as well as the Department’s regulations regarding gifts of invitational travel (see 2 FAM 962.12 ).

14 FAM 533.10  Site Travel

Travel of an employee may be authorized to visit a particular site in order to perform operational or managerial activities; e.g., oversee programs, grant operations, or management activities for internal control purposes; carry out an audit, inspection or repair activity; conduct negotiations; provide instructions; or provide technical assistance.

14 FAM 533.11  Special Mission Travel

Travel of an employee may be authorized to carry out a special agency mission such as involvement in noncombat military unit movements; providing security to a person or a shipment (e.g., diplomatic pouch); moving witnesses from residence to other locations; and covering travel by Federal beneficiaries and other nonemployees.

14 FAM 533.12  Speech or Presentation Travel

Travel of an employee may be authorized to make a speech or a presentation, deliver a paper, or otherwise take part in a formal program other than a training course where the authorizing official makes a specific determination in writing that such activity is related to and in furtherance of the agency’s mission.

14 FAM 534  Medical Travel

a. Official travel and transportation may be authorized for U.S. citizen employees and their eligible family members from any place where presence is due to U.S. Government orders to nearest locality where suitable medical care can be obtained and thence to an official duty station.

b. Travel of attendants may be authorized.  For other special provisions, see 16 FAM 316 and 14 FAM 523.2-1 , paragraph e.

14 fam 535  oTHER TRAVEL

14 FAM 535.1  Directed Departure

14 FAM 535.1-1  General

When, in accordance with 3 FAM 2443 , it is the judgment of a chief of a diplomatic mission that the departure of an employee assigned by the Department or Agency to a post under the chief of mission's jurisdiction would be in the interest of the U.S. Government, the authorizing officer at the post may issue a travel authorization detailing the employee to a nearby country.  For the Department, the post-authorizing officer may issue a travel authorization transferring a State Department employee and that employee's eligible family members to Washington, DC.  For USAID, a travel authorization transferring an employee to Washington, DC, must originate in or have prior approval of Washington, DC headquarters.  For USAGM, a travel authorization transferring an employee to Washington, DC must originate in or have prior approval of Washington, DC headquarters.

14 FAM 535.1-2  Procedures in Connection with Directed Departure

To authorize purchase of transportation permitting the detail of an employee or to transfer an employee and eligible family members in accordance with 3 FAM 2443 , chiefs of mission may allow issuance of Forms OF-1169, U.S. Government Transportation Request (GTRs).  The travel order establishing the official obligation of funds will be issued by the Department or the Agency, after the travel commences, upon receipt of the report required in 3 FAM 2445 .  Travel will be chargeable to the current applicable appropriation.  Other fiscal data will be supplied by Washington, DC.  Movement of household effects and shipment of automobiles must not be authorized until receipt of instructions from the Department or Agency.

14 FAM 535.2  Travel under Authorized/Ordered Emergency Evacuation

14 FAM 535.2-1  General

a. When the Under Secretary for Management (M) makes a determination that an emergency exists at a post requiring the evacuation of official U.S. citizen employees, official travel and transportation may be authorized for the employees, their eligible family members, and effects from post of assignment to place designated in the travel orders, and thence to post.

b. When M makes a determination that an emergency exists at a post requiring the evacuation of Foreign Service national employees, official travel may be authorized for the Foreign Service national employees and their immediate families to the nearest practicable place for the duration of the emergency.

c.  The authorizing officer at post must issue individual or blanket travel authorizations (see 14 FAM 628 for shipment and storage of household effects (HHE)).

14 FAM 535.2-2  Travel Authorizations under Authorized/Ordered Emergency Evacuation

a. State only :  The authorizing officer at post must issue individual or blanket travel authorizations.  Each authorization must cite the names of the persons traveling.  In addition to the usual post distribution of copies, the authorizing officer must furnish information copies of all evacuation travel authorizations to the:

(1)  Bureau of Global Talent Management (GTM/CDA/AD);

(2)  Travel and Transportation Management Division (A/LM/OPS/TTM);

(3)  Appropriate regional bureau; and

(4)  Office of Accounting Operations (CGFS/F/AO).

b. Commerce only :  The authorizing officer must furnish evacuation travel authorization copies to the:

(1)  Office of Foreign Service Human Resources (USFCS/OFSHR);

(2)  State's Travel and Transportation Management Division (A/LM/OPS/TTM); and

(3)  Office of Planning and Management.

c.  USAGM only :  The authorizing officer must furnish evacuation travel authorization copies to the:

(1)  Office of Foreign Service Personnel (D/OHR);

(2)  Office of Administrative Operations Division (M/AO); and

(3)  Appropriate administrative office.

d. USDA/FAS only :  The authorizing officer must furnish evacuation travel authorization copies to the:

(1)  Foreign Agricultural Affairs/International Services Division (USDA/FAS/OFSO/ISD); and

(2)  State's Travel and Transportation Management Division (A/LM/OPS/TTM).

e. APHIS only :  The authorizing officer must furnish evacuation travel authorization copies to the International Services/Administrative Services/Travel Section.

f.  U.S. Despatch Agents :  The Department's or Agency's transportation office will ensure that the appropriate U.S. Despatch Agent receives a copy of the evacuation order or request and authorization for use in clearing the employee's shipment(s) through U.S. Customs.

14 FAM 535.2-3  Prohibitions Against Official and Personal Travel to Posts under Authorized/Ordered Emergency Evacuation

See 3 FAM 3770 regarding requirements and restrictions for official and personal travel to posts under authorized departure, ordered departure, suspended operations, contingency operations, and posts designated partially unaccompanied or unaccompanied.

14 FAM 535.3  Emergency Visitation Travel

The cost of emergency visitation travel in connection with the serious illness, injury, or death of an immediate family member is performed in accordance with the provisions of 3 FAM 3740 .

14 FAM 535.4  Visitation Travel

14 FAM 535.4-1  Authorization

Travel of an employee or eligible family member may be authorized and performed in accordance with regulations in 14 FAM 523.2-1 , subparagraph f(1)(h), and in 3 FAM 3730 .

14 FAM 535.4-2  Travel to Countries With Closed Posts Or No U.S. Diplomatic or Consular Relations

See 3 FAM 3780 regarding requirements for official and personal travel of employees to countries with which the United States has no diplomatic or consular relations or where all U.S. posts have been closed, and where travel may be prohibited or restricted.

14 FAM 536  SPECIAL TRAVEL

14 FAM 536.1  Voluntary Separate Maintenance Allowance (SMA) Travel

14 FAM 536.1-1  Authorization

a. Travel may be authorized for all eligible family members for whom SMA is granted under Section 260 of the Department of State Standardized Regulations (DSSR).

b. Per 3 FAM 3232.3-3 , only one change of status of SMA for each family member will be permitted for a single tour of duty.  See DSSR 264.2(b) regarding change in status in an evacuation.

14 FAM 536.1-2  Authorized SMA Location(s)

a. The following SMA travel at U.S. Government expense may be approved to authorized location(s):

(1)  When the employee's point of origin is in the United States, an employee's family members may remain at the employee's last official duty station in the United States, or travel to the home leave location designated on Form OF-126 or Washington, DC when the employee is transferred to a foreign post of assignment;

(2)  When an employee transfers from one foreign post of assignment to another, an employee's family member(s) may travel to the home leave location designated on Form OF-126, Foreign Service Residence and Dependency Report, or Washington, DC;

(3)  If an SMA is granted during an employee's tour of duty abroad, the employee's family members may be authorized travel to the home leave location designated on Form OF-126, or Washington, DC.

b. For shipment of household effects under SMA Grant, see 14 FAM 613.7 .

14 FAM 536.1-3  Alternate SMA Location

a. U.S. family members traveling to an alternate SMA location in the United States (see definition in 14 FAM 511.3 ) may do so on a cost-constructive basis.  The maximum amount of reimbursement is the cost required to move the family members from the authorized point of origin to the authorized SMA point.

b. Foreign location: An employee's family members traveling to a foreign SMA location may do so on a cost-constructive basis.  The maximum amount of reimbursement is the cost required to move the family members from the authorized point of origin to the authorized SMA point.

c.  Should an employee's SMA grant be terminated due to the employee's subsequent transfer to another post of assignment while the family members are at a foreign location, the employee will be responsible for the payment of excess travel costs involved in relocating the family members to the new post of assignment.  The excess travel costs, if any, must be determined through a constructive cost analysis that compares the travel cost of the employee's eligible family members that would have been authorized from an authorized SMA location to the next post of assignment compared to the amount that is actually incurred.  Any amount in excess of the amount allowable is payable by the employee.

d. Family members in a foreign alternate SMA location have no diplomatic status or privileges.

14 FAM 536.1-4  SMA Travel Financed by Employee

An employee who initially pays the costs of advance travel of family members may subsequently claim reimbursement of travel and transportation expenses if the agency later authorizes an SMA grant for the affected family members.  An employee may not recover a greater amount than would have been incurred had the U.S. Government procured the travel (see 14 FAM 544.2 , paragraph c).

14 FAM 536.2  Death of U.S. Citizen Employee

The following applies to an employee abroad, on domestic assignment, or on TDY.

14 FAM 536.2-1  Expenses in Connection with Remains

a. Following the death of a Foreign Service employee or EFM while in a foreign area, expenses may be authorized for the reasonable cost of preparing remains including the cost of embalming, clothing, cremating, casket, or container suitable for shipment to the place of interment; expenses incurred in complying with local and U.S. laws; and transportation of remains from place of death to the employee's authorized separation address. Transportation of remains to any other place in the United States or its territories as designated by the next-of-kin may be done on a cost-construct basis against the authorized separation address, by surface, or by air.  For shipment of remains to a foreign country, see 14 FAM 536.2-4 .

b. Following the death of a Foreign Service employee or EFM while on assignment in the United States or a non-foreign area, expenses may be authorized for transportation of the remains from place of death to the employee's authorized separation address. Transportation of remains to any other place in the United States or its territories as designated by the next-of-kin may be done on a cost-construct basis against the authorized separation address, by surface, or by air.

c.  For Civil Service employees, refer to FTR, chapter 303.

14 FAM 536.2-2  Family Travel Expenses

Expenses may be authorized for the travel of the family from the last place at which dependents resided and traveled at U.S. Government expense, to any place in the United States designated by the next-of-kin as separation residence or place of interment.  For travel to foreign countries, see 14 FAM 536.2-4 .

14 FAM 536.2-3  Transporting Effects

Expenses may be authorized for the transportation of effects from the last post of assignment, and safe haven if effects are located there, and from any place where effects are stored at U.S. Government expense, to separation residence designated by the next-of-kin.  For transportation to foreign countries, see 14 FAM 536.2-4 .

14 FAM 536.2-4  Foreign Destinations

Actual authorized expenses may be authorized for travel, transportation of effects, and/or shipment of remains to a foreign country and are allowed up to the constructive cost to place last designated by employee as separation residence.  Place of interment may differ from residence for travel and transportation of family.  When one location or the other is in a foreign country, this does not limit the next-of-kin's discretion in designating an authorized location in the United States for either interment or travel and transportation of family.  Authorized expenses may be incurred at any time within 12 months following the date of death, unless the time limitation is waived by the GTM/EX Director or USAID Executive Officer for USAID staff.

14 FAM 536.3  Family Member Death

a. This section applies when the employee is assigned abroad or is on domestic assignment.

b. Actual expenses may be authorized for round-trip travel of a family member and for transportation of remains to the separation address or on a cost-constructive basis to any other point in the U.S. or foreign country.

14 FAM 536.3-1  Expenses in Connection with Remains

See 14 FAM 536.2 .

14 FAM 536.3-2  Family Travel Expenses

Travel expenses are authorized for an employee or an eligible dependent to accompany the remains of a family member to the place of interment in the United States or abroad and return to the duty station (see 3 FAM 2550 ).

14 FAM 536.3-3  Transporting Effects

Transportation of effects is not authorized in connection with a family member death.

14 FAM 536.4  Travel and Transportation Expenses Authorized in Connection with Deaths of Locally Employed (LE) Staff when in Temporary Duty (TDY) Travel Status

Travel and transportation expenses are authorized when a LE Staff dies at a post abroad to which that LE Staff has traveled at U.S. Government expense.  Types of expenses authorized are detailed below.

14 FAM 536.4-1  Expenses in Connection with Remains

Expenses in connection with remains are authorized only as prescribed by 5 U.S.C. 5742, and within made available to the post.  The chief of mission must determine the payments to be made.

14 FAM 536.4-2  Transportation of Effects

Transportation of effects is authorized from the TDY post where death occurred to the LE Staff's post of employment.  Payments are to be made from allotments made available to the post.

14 FAM 537  through 539 unassigned

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What Are Travel Expenses?

Understanding travel expenses, the bottom line.

• Deductions & Credits
• Tax Deductions

Travel Expenses Definition and Tax Deductible Categories

Michelle P. Scott is a New York attorney with extensive experience in tax, corporate, financial, and nonprofit law, and public policy. As General Counsel, private practitioner, and Congressional counsel, she has advised financial institutions, businesses, charities, individuals, and public officials, and written and lectured extensively.

For tax purposes, travel expenses are costs associated with traveling to conduct business-related activities. Reasonable travel expenses can generally be deducted from taxable income by a company when its employees incur costs while traveling away from home specifically for business. That business can include conferences or meetings.

Key Takeaways

• Travel expenses are tax-deductible only if they were incurred to conduct business-related activities.
• Only ordinary and necessary travel expenses are deductible; expenses that are deemed unreasonable, lavish, or extravagant are not deductible.
• The IRS considers employees to be traveling if their business obligations require them to be away from their "tax home” substantially longer than an ordinary day's work.
• Examples of deductible travel expenses include airfare, lodging, transportation services, meals and tips, and the use of communications devices.

Travel expenses incurred while on an indefinite work assignment that lasts more than one year are not deductible for tax purposes.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) considers employees to be traveling if their business obligations require them to be away from their "tax home" (the area where their main place of business is located) for substantially longer than an ordinary workday, and they need to get sleep or rest to meet the demands of their work while away.

Well-organized records—such as receipts, canceled checks, and other documents that support a deduction—can help you get reimbursed by your employer and can help your employer prepare tax returns. Examples of travel expenses can include:

• Airfare and lodging for the express purpose of conducting business away from home
• Transportation services such as taxis, buses, or trains to the airport or to and around the travel destination
• The cost of meals and tips, dry cleaning service for clothes, and the cost of business calls during business travel
• The cost of computer rental and other communications devices while on the business trip

Travel expenses do not include regular commuting costs.

Individual wage earners can no longer deduct unreimbursed business expenses. That deduction was one of many eliminated by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

While many travel expenses can be deducted by businesses, those that are deemed unreasonable, lavish, or extravagant, or expenditures for personal purposes, may be excluded.

Types of Travel Expenses

Types of travel expenses can include:

• Personal vehicle expenses
• Taxi or rideshare expenses
• Airfare, train fare, or ferry fees
• Laundry and dry cleaning
• Business meals
• Business calls
• Shipment costs for work-related materials
• Some equipment rentals, such as computers or trailers

The use of a personal vehicle in conjunction with a business trip, including actual mileage, tolls, and parking fees, can be included as a travel expense. The cost of using rental vehicles can also be counted as a travel expense, though only for the business-use portion of the trip. For instance, if in the course of a business trip, you visited a family member or acquaintance, the cost of driving from the hotel to visit them would not qualify for travel expense deductions .

The IRS allows other types of ordinary and necessary expenses to be treated as related to business travel for deduction purposes. Such expenses can include transport to and from a business meal, the hiring of a public stenographer, payment for computer rental fees related to the trip, and the shipment of luggage and display materials used for business presentations.

Travel expenses can also include operating and maintaining a house trailer as part of the business trip.

Can I Deduct My Business Travel Expenses?

Business travel expenses can no longer be deducted by individuals.

If you are self-employed or operate your own business, you can deduct those "ordinary and necessary" business expenses from your return.

If you work for a company and are reimbursed for the costs of your business travel , your employer will deduct those costs at tax time.

Do I Need Receipts for Travel Expenses?

Yes. Whether you're an employee claiming reimbursement from an employer or a business owner claiming a tax deduction, you need to prepare to prove your expenditures. Keep a running log of your expenses and file away the receipts as backup.

What Are Reasonable Travel Expenses?

Reasonable travel expenses, from the viewpoint of an employer or the IRS, would include transportation to and from the business destination, accommodation costs, and meal costs. Certainly, business supplies and equipment necessary to do the job away from home are reasonable. Taxis or Ubers taken during the business trip are reasonable.

Unreasonable is a judgment call. The boss or the IRS might well frown upon a bill for a hotel suite instead of a room, or a sports car rental instead of a sedan.

Individual taxpayers need no longer fret over recordkeeping for unreimbursed travel expenses. They're no longer tax deductible by individuals, at least until 2025 when the provisions in the latest tax reform package are due to expire or be extended.

If you are self-employed or own your own business, you should keep records of your business travel expenses so that you can deduct them properly.

Internal Revenue Service. " Topic No. 511, Business Travel Expenses ."

Internal Revenue Service. " Publication 463, Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses ," Page 13.

Internal Revenue Service. " Publication 5307, Tax Reform Basics for Individuals and Families ," Page 7.

Internal Revenue Service. " Publication 463, Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses ," Pages 6-7, 13-14.

Internal Revenue Service. " Publication 463, Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses ," Page 4.

Internal Revenue Service. " Publication 5307, Tax Reform Basics for Individuals and Families ," Pages 5, 7.

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Travel guide:

Frequently Asked Questions

Questions about booking travel, how to book flights or rail, enter your destination, then origin.

• Go to Concur at travel.gsa.gov
• In the shortcuts menu on the upper left hand corner, select Travel - New Booking
• Click on the Air/Rail icon (this should be already selected). If you need to travel by train only, choose the Rail icon instead.

*Note: If you need to travel by both air and rail, call AdTrav at (877) 472-6716 and they will make your reservations for you. An hour after your call, skip ahead to this step to submit your AdTrav reservation for approval.

*Note: The destination city is entered before the departure city

• Click Search to move onto the next screen.

How to Choose a Flight

When choosing flights, you may notice they fall into four different categories:

• Govt. Contract Discounted: the preferred option. In general, these fares are only available 15 or more days in advance, so try to book your travel as early as possible.
• Govt. Contract: the standard option, based on the city pair rate , the agreed upon rate for government flights between two cities. These are preferred if no govt. contract discounted fares are available.
• Non-contract Government: these fares are also acceptable to book if the timing is more advantageous. All these fares are within the City Pair rate and are fully refundable. No additional approvals are required to book a non-contract government fare.
• Lowest published: while these fares may come at a lower cost than the contract options, they also come at increased risk to the government because many of these fares are nonrefundable. Any flight that is nonrefundable must be explicitly approved by the authorizing official before the TTS travel team can approve. If you think that choosing a "Lowest published" nonrefundable fare is your best option, skip ahead to securing your approval email now , and then come back to book later. You'll want to ensure you secure the approval before you book because these fares expire quickly, often before authorizing official and travel team approval can be reasonably obtained.

*Note about flights with policy violations:

If you need to take a flight which indicates a policy violation, the type of violation will inform what steps you need to take next. Click on "View Fares" to pull up additional details about your flight selection.

If any part of the fare that you chose is nonrefundable, or exceeds the City Pair rate (note that lookup values here are for one-way fares), you will need an additional email approving the risk of nonrefundable airfare and/or additional costs from your authorizing official sent to [email protected].

What justifies using a non-contract fare?

• Select the lowest cost, most compliant fare available by clicking on the blue button at right with the price. This will take you onto the confirmation page.

• This will take you to the Trip Overview . This page also lists your current reservations.

By choosing "I will book a hotel now." you will be allowed to book your hotel directly in Concur. Before doing so, please ensure that your travel card is saved in your Concur profile .

Book lodging

*Note : If you don't have a travel card yet, make sure that you've applied for one (it is required by GSA policy), then choose "I will book a hotel later". Call AdTrav at (877) 472-6716 to reserve your hotel (and rental car if needed) on your personal card in the meantime. Assuming you've already booked your flight or train in Concur, mention the authorization number associated with your itinerary so you don't get a second overlapping authorization for your hotel and/or rental car. You can verify your authorization number by going to the "Authorizations" tab in Concur and finding the number in blue on the left side associated with your travel dates. An hour after you call with AdTrav, proceed on to completing trip information .

How to Book a hotel in Concur

*Note: if you are coming back to this step after going back to the main menu of Concur, make sure your saved authorization is selected, go to Travel Home , reopen your itinerary, and then choose "Hotel" under "Add to your Itinerary".

*If you didn't need to book flights or rail, you can go to the Travel tab of Concur and make your reservations selecting the "hotel only" option.

Enter check-in and check-out dates, location, any preferred hotels, and then click next.

Confirm the per diem location and click next. The maximum lodging rate and M&IE allowance is indicated below.

Choose a hotel from the list of search results. Unless you have approval otherwise, or intend to pay for the difference in price personally, sure that you pick a hotel with a nightly rate equal to or less than the government maximum for the area listed here . In the side bar you can filter your search results to only those under the Per diem rate by checking Hide hotels over Per Diem limit ($XXX.00) .

Click on View Rooms , to view a detailed list of rooms within the hotel and select the room by clicking on the listed price at right.

Review and Reserve Hotel On the review screen:

• Select your hotel room preferences
• Choose a credit card
• Agree to the hotel's rate policies.
• Click on Reserve Hotel and Continue

You will now be taken back to your trip itinerary. Note that the hotel has been added to the flight.

Scroll down and click Next and complete your trip information , or if needed, continue on to reserve a rental car .

Can I book outside of Concur?

Unless there are extenuating circumstances, you should use Concur for all reservations (flights, hotels, and rental cars). If you choose to book a hotel outside of Concur, include a justification that corresponds with one of the following (from the Federal Travel Regulation):

• When you are attending a conference where the conference sponsor has negotiated with one or more lodging facilities to set aside a specific number of rooms for conference attendees and to ensure that a set aside room is available to you, you are required to book lodging directly with the lodging facility.
• When your travel is to a remote location and it is not possible to book lodging accommodations through the TMS or ETS (Concur).
• When such travel arrangements are so complex and circumstance will not allow you to book your travel through an online self-service booking tool (Concur).

If you need to book a hotel outside of Concur, check if booking comes with any nonrefundable fees. If it does, make sure that you get your authorizing official to approve the approximate amount of what is nonrefundable and send the email to [email protected]. Nonrefundable hotel fees that are not pre-approved are the traveler’s liability. Should booking a hotel in Concur or via AdTrav not be possible, , external, Fedrooms offers hotels within government maximum rates that have flexible cancellation policies.

When you are finished booking your hotel, proceed on to complete trip information .

Booking a Rental Car

Before booking a rental car ensure that manager or client who approved your travel explicitly approved budget for a rental car-- in certain situations, rental cars and parking charges are not as advantageous to the government as common carriers such as taxis and/or public transit. Government vehicles may also be available-- check out the guide , external, TTS-only, here for more details.

*If you didn't need to book flights, rail, or hotel, you can go to the Travel tab of Concur and make your reservations selecting the "rental car only" option.

How to Book A Rental Car in Concur

• From the itinerary page, choose "Car" under "Add to your Itinerary" and then select the trip leg when prompted.
• Indicate pick-up and drop-off dates, location(s), car type, and preferred vendor(s).

*Note GSA employees are required to use the lowest cost compact car unless approved for a larger vehicle based on meeting one or more of the justifications listed in FTR §301-10.450(c) .

• Confirm your email address and travel card information, and then Reserve Car and Continue.

Important notes:

Be aware that the rental company you select must participate in the , external, Defense Travel Management Office's (DTMO) Rental Car Program . Rental car companies participating in the program established ceiling rates; unlimited mileage (except for one-way rentals); vehicle contract will be ready upon arrival; if size/class reserved is not available, the company will offer an upgrade at the same cost; no underage drivers’ fee for drivers between the ages of 18-25; no minimum rental period; no cost for additional drivers; and full coverage insurance for damages resulting from an accident while performing official travel.

The Government is self-insured and rental vehicles under the DTMO agreement include full coverage for damages resulting from an accident while performing official travel. Employees on TDY travel within CONUS will not be reimbursed for collision damage waiver (CDW) or theft insurance available on commercial rental contracts. Employees will be reimbursed for collision damage waiver or theft insurance while on TDY in non-foreign areas in accordance with FTR §301-10.451 . Personal liability insurance is considered a personal expense and will not be reimbursed.

Once you have reserved your rental car, continue on to complete trip information .

Questions about securing approvals

Completing trip information.

On the Trip Booking Information page you must enter some general information in order to ensure that your trip gets billed to the right client and/or budget.

*Note: If you called Ad Trav to book travel, you'll need to open Concur about an hour after your initial call to AdTrav, going to the Authorizations tab, clicking on your authorization, and selecting Edit Authorization . This will open up the document, where you can go to the General tab and see the fields that are presented below:

How to Complete Your Trip Information

Trip name: Identify the budget of your trip here, based on the type of project you are traveling for:

• Billable projects: for 18F and CoE, include the exact name and number of the project as it appears in , external, TTS-only, Tock . For PIF billable travel, simply indicate the project is billable.
• All other projects: include the name of the team budget that is paying for this travel (a list of options is in cell C5 of the , external, TTS-only, TTS Budget and Accounting Lookup

*Note: If you are traveling for multiple projects (whether billable or not), list all of the relevant Tock name and numbers and budget names as appropriate.

• BILLABLE: 18F / HHS / CMS FY19 #997
• BILLABLE: CoE / USDA Phase 2 / Cloud Adoption #980
• BILLABLE: PIF - DHS
• NONBILLABLE: OPP Smarter IT Solutions Division (QXD)
• NONBILLABLE: 18F Strategy Branch (QEAD)
• NONBILLABLE: Cloud Adoption CoE

Type Code: "SINGLE TRIP". Trip Purpose: “Mission (Operational)” in most cases, unless attending a conference or training. Document detail: Brief summary of the purpose of the trip. Will this travel be a detail to another location? No.

• Proceed by clicking Next to finalize the reservation.

Additional step if you booked your hotel outside of Concur or Ad Trav

*Note: If you did not book a hotel from Concur, a policy violation will be flagged. If this applies to you, briefly justify your hotel choice .

Additional step if you are extending travel for personal reasons

Deleting hotel expenses which auto-populate on your authorization is relatively straightforward, but an additional step is required to remove M&IE. In some cases, Concur may not allow you to do this on the authorization. If that's the case, proceed as normal and return to this step when creating your voucher after you get back.

How to Justify Rental Cars and Personal Vehicle Mileage

In most cases, you can proceed straight on to stamping and submitting for travel team approval at this point . However, since "common carrier" transit (e.g. public transit, flights, trains, buses, shuttles, taxis, etc) or a , external, TTS-only, government car are the preferred modes of transit for official GSA travel, additional justification is required if you intend to incur the following expenses:

• Rental Cars: You must add a comment on the "Expenses and Receipts" page justifying the use of a rental car as advantageous to the government (considering both cost and time) compared to common carrier transit or a government car.
• Mileage: You must add this in as an expense on the "Expenses and Receipts" page and then justify the mileage claim as advantageous to the government (considering both cost and time) compared to common carrier transit, government car, and rental car. Mileage from your home to the airport (plus associated parking fees or round-trip travel in case of a drop-off) need only be justified as advantageous compared to taxi and public transit, as it is understood that obtaining a government car or rental car is impractical over such a short distance.

How to Stamp and Submit for Travel Team Approval

Following this step will ensure your authorization or voucher is in SUBMIT TO APPROVER status, which is required for your request to be reviewed, approved, and ticketed. Before you submit, you can review , external, this Checklist to ensure you've addressed all potential issues that can result in your request getting rejected or returned for correction.

• Click Document Actions -> Submit Document (in the upper right hand corner of your authorization)
• You will be taken to a document history page. If your “Status to Apply” is “Submit to Approver” , then click Stamp and Submit Document at either the top or the bottom of the page and continue. If not, please correct any other failures.
• The next page will show you your pre-audit results . These will let you know if anything might be awry, which is represented by either a FAIL or a HARDFAIL . Many of these are not a cause for concern as long as you secure approvals in the right way. For a more detailed guide on what to do for each FAIL or HARDFAIL , read on , external, TTS-only, here . As long as you don't have any hardfails, you are clear to Continue Stamping the Document
• If you successfully stamped the document, you be taken to a page with the button Close Post Stamping Document Closure Screen . It doesn’t look like it, but when you see that button, you are done! Your authorization has been submitted. You don’t even have to click the button again (but you can if you want).
• In the case of authorizations, your travel will be approved by the TTS travel team once you have secured approval from your authorizing official . Ensure this is complete by 3:30 PM Eastern, else your travel will not be approved until the next business day. If you require approval after business hours, see the guide for after-hours and emergency travel here .

*For vouchers, your travel will be approved within 3-5 business days.

• Once you have been approved by the TTS travel team, you should receive a notification from Concur. Please note that in most cases, government contract airfare does not ticket until 72 hours before departure , so you may not receive official confirmation of your itinerary until then. Don't worry about this, the TTS travel team is not aware of any situations where approved travelers have not been issued tickets :)

*For vouchers, reimbursement will be issued to your personal account and travel card 3-5 business days after travel team approval. For issues with reimbursement, read on more here

Once your authorization is approved and ticketed, you might want to take a look at what to expect while traveling !

How to secure authorizing official approval

You must formally request your authorizing official's approval* via email and forward it to [email protected], unless you are traveling to a training, conference, speaking event, or other "IRL" or large team gathering, in which case you must follow the event request process instead . Who is my authorizing official? The body of the email must include the following: See an individual template here and a group template here

• Names of individuals traveling What if this changes?
• Start and end dates of travel What if I am extending travel for personal reasons?
• A brief description of work to be done on the trip
• Identified budget that will be paying for the trip How do I identify my budget?
• Origin and destinations for each individual What if I am returning to or traveling from a location other than home?
• Estimated expenses for each individual, including a sufficient budget for local travel and miscellaneous expenses such baggage fees How should I estimate my expenses?
• Include the travel expenses estimator as an image in the body of the email to make the travel approver's life easier.

* Note that in many cases, your engagement manager or team lead may request approval on behalf of the group-- reach out to them before emailing your authorizing official.

Who is my authorizing official and what is my budget?

Your authorizing official must be a supervisor or director at GSA.

If your travel is non-billable , and coming from your team's budget, your authorizing official would be your supervisor or director. If expenses will be paid out of another team's budget (list of budgets available in cell C5 of , external, TTS-only, this sheet ), you will need a supervisor or director from that team to approve.

If your travel is billable , you will need to have the Account Manager of the project or Director of the team overseeing the project verify the budget prior to submitting the travel request. Please use the following process to document the verification:

• Project teams should send travel request(s) with estimated costs via email to the Account Manager
• The Account Manager will reply with either "Approve" or "Reject" and provide additional context if they deem necessary
• Once approved/rejected the Account Manager updates the comment session for the project in Airtable.
• Submit the travel request(s) to the appropriate approver as listed below

The following list provides Concur approvers for billable travel:

• 18F: 1st Line Supervisor (verify with the project's Account Manager first per instructions above)
• 10x: Nico Papafil
• cloud.gov: Ashley Mahan until a new cloud.gov director is selected
• login.gov: Dan Lopez
• Centers of Excellence: Jenny Rostami.

What if I am traveling for multiple projects?

Secure approval from each authorizing official as you would normally, but with an eye on which project will be covering each expense. When completing your trip information in Concur , ensure that either the Trip Name or Document Detail mentions that the travel will be split between multiple projects. If more than one authorizing official has approved expenses for a particular day or leg of the itinerary, clarify which project will be paying for each part of the trip, either via email to [email protected] or comment in the Trip Name or Document Detail sections of Concur. Splitting overall trip costs by a percentage is acceptable as well, as long as the split is agreed upon by all parties.

Another common situation which arises when splitting travel across multiple projects is having days in between, such as a weekend in between travel for two projects. Having official travel approved for the days in between, including weekends or leave is possible as long as the following conditions are met:

• It is not possible to reschedule one of the meetings or events to avoid having days in between.
• Considering both the travel time and overall cost, it is advantageous to the government to pay for the hotel and meals for the time in between rather than the round trip travel cost of having the employee return home.
• One or both authorizing officials agree to cover the costs of the time in between.

* Note that this same situation may arise when travel is required for one project on both sides of a weekend-- the same considerations apply.

How can I get my travel approved to attend a training, conference, speaking event, or other "IRL" or large team gathering*?

Instead of obtaining an email of approval, you must follow the event request process . You may book your travel in the meantime. However, if you will be extending your trip at your own expense , flying to or from points that are not either your duty station or location of the event , or combining your event travel with travel for some other reason, you must secure an email from your authorizing official approving of the revised itinerary.

*The threshold for a large team gathering is over 6 employees traveling for an internal management meeting (not day-to-day business) and/or more than $10,000 in estimated travel expenses for the group. Requests for approval of these events is typically handled by the organizer of the meeting.

What if who is traveling changes?

A follow-up to the original email from the authorizing official indicating who the new travel is, and if there is any change in dates or estimated cost is sufficient.

What if I am extending travel for personal reasons?

Include language that specifies which days will be at your own expense, and acknowledge that "I understand all other travel expenses including lodging and meals before or after the official travel dates specified above are my own responsibility." You may remove hotels and M&IE from your authorization in Concur if you haven't already.

Alternatively, you may book your official travel and have it approved as normal. Once your travel has been approved by the travel team in Concur, you may then call AdTrav at (877) 472-6716 and request to be re-booked on a different flight for personal travel. In the case of most government contract flights, there is no additional charge. However, if there is an additional cost compared to your original itinerary, AdTrav will request you provide a personal credit or debit card number to pay for the difference.

What if I am returning to or traveling from a location other than home?

If you were previously scheduled to be on leave or telework at the other location*, the full cost of travel from or to that location can be approved at the discretion of your authorizing official. Ensure that there is language in the email that reflects your itinerary.

If you'd like to schedule personal travel that's incidental to your work trip (i.e. planned after the work trip), after your official work itinerary has been approved in Concur, you can give AdTrav a call at (877) 472-6716 and request that your itinerary be changed for personal reasons, with you covering any difference in cost that may arise.

*Note that while GSA travel policy doesn't explicitly forbid being approved to travel from a foreign location, travel to or from foreign locations must be requested in Event Tracker for GSA Administrator approval at least 7 weeks in advance, making approval in these circumstances extremely unlikely.

International travel

All official international travel taken by GSA employees, regardless of funding source, requires Salesforce event approval. Please reach out to [email protected] at least 7 weeks in advance in order to coordinate this.

Teleworking from locations outside the U.S. while on personal travel is not allowed.

How should I estimate my expenses

In the case of individual or small group travel, you may estimate your expenses based on the total amount of your authorization in Concur, plus an reasonable allowance for any additional expenses such as taxis, parking, and baggage fees.

For larger group travel, it is recommended to use this , external, TTS-only, travel expenses estimator template which automatically calculates most airfare and per diems.

Questions about reimbursement

How do i create a "voucher from authorization".

Visit Concur at travel.gsa.gov . Click "Vouchers" in the top bar and then "New Voucher" in the next-to-top bar. In the field Document Type, select "Voucher From Authorization" and click Next. You will be led through creating a voucher from your authorization that you got approved prior to traveling.

• Under Document Search, you’ll see a list of your “open” authorizations (i.e. your authorizations that don’t have vouchers yet).
• Hit the pencil button to select the authorization you’d like to be reimbursed for. You will be moved onto the next step, Reviewing and completing trip information on the Document Information screen.
• TIP : If you can't figure out which authorization is your recent trip by name, look at the departure date column.

Once you've selected your authorization and continue, you'll be taken to the Document Information page. This should all be auto-populated, so unless some of the details of your trip changed, no further action is required here and you may continue on to Create Document and start adding your expenses . More guidance on what receipts or justifications are required can be found here

What if I can't find my authorization listed here?

If you can't find your authorization on this list, it may be because an amended authorization was generated for you. If you changed your trip such that trip dates or locations fall outside what was originally approved, you'll need to submit that amended auth for approval by going to the Authorizations tab, selecting the amended authorization corresponding to your trip, and going in to Open Document .

However, in some cases, Concur will generate an amendment in error. If you suspect this is the case, head to the Authorizations tab, select the amended authorization corresponding to your trip, and Delete Document

How do I create a local or miscellaneous voucher?

Upon selecting the Local voucher option, you will be taken to a blank Document Information page. Here's what you need to include for each field:

• Trip Name This should follow the same naming conventions you would use for a travel authorization . Ensure you have an email from your authorizing official approving all of the expenses you'd like to claim sent to [email protected].
• Type code and Trip purpose If the voucher is for local travel (taxis, mileage, etc.), choose Local travel . For any other sort of reimbursement, choose Misc voucher .
• Document detail Enter a brief description of what the reimbursement is for here.
• Click on Create Document

Proceed on to entering your expenses . Note that any local transit over $25 requires a receipt, and all expenses claimed on a miscellaneous voucher require receipts.

How to add, edit or delete expenses

Adding expenses.

Expenses can be added by clicking the Add expense button either above or below. Make sure to save and click the Add expense button again before creating a new expense.

Editing expenses

Expenses can be edited by clicking the pencil button and then making changes on the right hand side. Don't forget to save any changes you make!

Selecting payment type

Make sure you correctly indicate what was paid on the travel card vs personal means of payment to avoid issues with reimbursement .

• Use IBA for anything paid for on the travel card. Not seeing this option? Add your travel card to your Concur profile
• Use CASH for anything paid for using cash or a personal card.
• CBA is only used for air and rail expenses paid through Concur directly.

Attaching receipts

You can attach receipts by clicking on the Add receipt to lodging button (looks like a slip of paper with a checkmark, just to the right of the pencil button for editing expenses.

Deleting expenses

Expenses can be deleted by clicking the checkbox next to the expense and then clicking the Delete selected expenses button either above or below.

When are receipts or further justifications required to claim expenses?

Simple expenses.

The following expenses can be entered as-is without further receipts, written justifications, or other considerations, provided that each expense is under $75:

• Airfare or Amtrak tickets booked through Concur or AdTrav
• Airplane wifi
• Fees for one checked bag per leg of itinerary
• Laundry expenses, if official travel is at least 4 nights
• Tolls, if government car, POV mileage or rental car is pre-approved
• Meals and Incidental Expenses
• Public transit expenses of $25 or less.

Expenses requiring receipts

The following expenses require receipts:

• Flights or Amtrak booked outside of Concur (Requires additional justification and is only approved on a case-by-case basis)
• Rental cars and gas for rental cars (also requires additional justification
• Any other expense exceeding $75, including local transportation (This threshold is $25 for local vouchers)
• Any expenses claimed on a miscellaneous voucher.
• Professional liability insurance

Expenses requiring further justification:

The following expenses don't require receipts, but do require brief descriptions to justify claiming them:

• Local transportation expenses of $75 or less per trip (Metro, taxis, personal vehicle mileage, etc.)
• Checked baggage fees for more than one piece of luggage per leg of your trip.

Questions about entering specific expenses

How should i claim meals and incidental expenses.

• The allowance for Meals and Incidental Expenses (M&IE) is a flat rate given to a traveler regardless of what they actually spent. No receipts or justification is needed to receive M&IE.
• For example : Consider a trip taken between 9/16 and 9/18. M&IE is $69 per day in DC, and is 75% of $69 ($51.75) on the first and last days of a trip. We see that the three days of M&IE has been added automatically.

How should I claim meals paid on the travel card?

When meals are paid on the travel card, there are a few different ways of documenting it:

• One can create a new M&IE expense with expense method IBA in the amount spent on meals per day. The amount of M&IE reimbursed to your personal account will be automatically reduced accordingly (you will see negative charges appear that correspond with this). If you document all expenses correctly, your travel card bill will be paid off exactly.
• One can change the payment method of M&IE expenses to IBA so that all reimbursement is routed to the travel card. If the entire allowance was not used, any amount left over will show up as a positive balance. You may call the customer service number on the back of the card and request that a check be mailed for that remaining amount.
• One can leave the payment method of M&IE expenses as the default, CASH . After the voucher is processed, there will be an outstanding balance remaining. This will need to be paid-- call the customer service number on the back of the card for more details on making a payment.

How can I remove extra days at personal expense from my authorization or voucher?

If you were authorized to extend your trip at your own expense and need to delete M&IE, there are some special instructions that you should follow:

• Edit your first full day of travel at your own expense by clicking on the pencil icon.
• Click on the View Per Diem Conditions . You should see a menu expand below.
• Choose M&IE Override , then Override by amount , and 0 .
• Check On leave . Use Other leave , 8 hours .
• If you are requesting leave for multiple days, return to the top and enter in the last full day you are traveling at personal expense.
• Save. Your M&IE should show as zero for the day. If it didn't work, just go ahead an add in a comment about the days you would like to zero out in the comments field, and the travel team will take that into account when they review your voucher for approval.

How should I claim hotels and lodging taxes?

If you booked a hotel in Concur, your actual hotel expenses should populate automatically. However, that automatic amount will often lump in the taxes, which should be considered a separate list.

First, attach your receipt to the first night of lodging only, unless you have multiple receipts. Note that Concur will flag all expenses needing receipts

Then, correct the lodging expenses so they reflect the actual nightly rate paid, not including taxes.

Finally, add a new expense for lodging taxes in , keeping in mind the following:

• Create Expenses Through: Enter the last night you were checked into the hotel, and each night’s lodging tax will be copied through.
• Expense Date: The night that you checked in.
• Expense Description: Lodging Tax
• Cost: Tax per night (tax can also be reported as a lump sum, though lodging itself must be broken out per night)
• Payment Method: Travel card -> IBA , and other form of payment -> CASH

Don't forget to Save!

How should I claim air or Amtrak booked outside of Concur

Any airfare or Amtrak tickets booked outside of Concur are at your own risk and may not be approved. If you are seeking reimbursement for personally booked airfare or Amtrak, you must choose Other - Miscellaneous as the expense description, and in the comments section under Show other details , you must provide a justification as to why it was not possible for you to book your travel via Concur or AdTrav.

How can I get reimbursed for professional liability insurance?

Supervisors may be reimbursed for up to half the cost of professional liability insurance, up to $150. In order to claim reimbursement, get an email from your supervisor approving the amount of the reimbursement you intend to claim and send it to [email protected]. Then, create a miscellaneous voucher in Concur and attach the receipt you received after purchasing the insurance.

How should I claim local transportation expenses?

For public transit, taxis, rental cars, POV mileage and other forms of local transportation, you may add the expense as normal , choosing whichever expense description reflects the nature of the method used. Choose the payment method used , and upload a receipt only for rental cars, rental car gas, or any other expense greater than $75 (this threshold is $25 for local vouchers .

Any local transit expense other than public transit under $25 requires a brief comment describing the origin and destination of the travel (e.g. "from airport to office").

You can add this by clicking on Show other details and filling out the Comments section that pops up below.

For public transit over $25, a “blanket entry” describing generally the origins and destinations of travel paid for is acceptable.

For rental cars and mileage claims, the comment should also include an additional justification as specified here .

For mileage claims over $75, instead of attaching a receipt, attach a screenshot showing a map of your itinerary with the calculated distance.

Issues with reimbursement

I received a bill for an outstanding balance on my travel card. should i pay it.

A: First, verify that your most recent voucher was paid to the travel card account. Go to the Vouchers tab of Concur, then click on the voucher number you want to view and choose View Summary . In the voucher view, navigate down to the Totals and travel advances section and verify the amount on the Pay to Charge Card line. This amount should match with a payment made to the travel card in your travel card statement. TTS-only, More information about logging into and managing your travel card account. If it does, and there is still a remaining balance, it is likely that you used the travel card to pay for something that was either claimed as CASH on the voucher, or not claimed at all.

If you discover a valid charge to your travel card that you need to be reimbursed for after your voucher is initially approved, you may create an amended voucher .

If you were reimbursed to your bank account for a charge made on your travel card, you will have to pay the bill for it. Contact the number on the back of your travel card for details on how payment can be made.

Positive balance on travel card

If you have a positive balance on the travel card, it is likely that you claimed an expense as paid for on the travel card when you actually paid for it via a personal means of payment. You can call the number on the back of your travel card and request that they mail you a check in the amount of the positive balance.

My reimbursement never arrived!

If it has been over a week after your voucher has been approved and your reimbursement hasn't arrived (whether to your travel card account or personal account), contact [email protected] and describe the issue you are having. cc [email protected].

How do I amend my voucher after it is approved?

To amend a voucher, go to the Vouchers tab of Concur, then click on the voucher number you want to view and choose Amend voucher . Provide a brief reason for the amendment, then proceed with adding your revised expenses and resubmitting for approval . Note that if you want to revise a voucher that has not yet been approved, you can simply Edit Voucher instead of amending.

Note: Vouchers should NOT be amended in the case of revising the payment method ( IBA to CASH or vice versa , or reducing a claim on an already-approved expense. If you were over-reimbursed for something, you will need to mail a check for that amount, made out to GSA to the following address:

USDA-OCFO Financial Operations & Disbursement Branch Attn: Bryan DeLeve - 2SE 2300 Main Street Kansas City, MO 64108

Reference the authorization and voucher number along with the payment.

• , external, TTS-only, #travel
• , external, [email protected]
• , external, Book office hours

Handbook.tts.gsa.gov

An official website of the U.S. General Services Administration

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• Business tax

Ordinary commuting and private travel (490: Chapter 3)

What qualifies as ordinary commuting and private travel for tax purposes.

An employee cannot have tax relief for the cost of a journey which is ordinary commuting or private travel. The following paragraphs explain what these terms mean.

Ordinary commuting

The term ‘ordinary commuting’ means any travel between a permanent workplace and:

• any other place which is not a workplace

A workplace is a place where the employee’s attendance is necessary for the performance of the duties of that employment. The meaning of permanent workplace is explained at paragraph 3.10 .

For most employees this means that ordinary commuting is the journey they make most days between their home and their normal place of work. However, for some employees the position is more complicated.

In general, there is no tax relief for the cost of travel between an employee’s permanent workplace and:

• an employee’s home
• any other place the employee visits for non-work reasons
• any place where the employee performs the duties of another job

James works 5 days a week at an office in central Birmingham which is his permanent workplace. From Monday to Thursday he travels to Birmingham from his home.

This journey is ordinary commuting. However, on a Thursday he always goes out for the evening with friends and often stays at a friend’s house overnight from where he travels directly into work in the morning.

His journey from his friend’s house to his permanent workplace is also ordinary commuting as it’s travel to a permanent workplace from a place which is not a workplace.

Dermot’s employer sometimes needs him to attend his permanent workplace outside normal working hours – for example, at the weekend. This means he incurs extra costs on bus fares, the cost of meals eaten at his desk and sometimes even the cost of overnight accommodation near his workplace.

No tax relief is available for any of this expenditure because all journeys between home and his permanent workplace are ordinary commuting. It makes no difference that Dermot’s employer needs him to make the journeys or that they’re made outside his normal working hours.

An employee cannot turn an ordinary commuting journey into a business journey simply by arranging a business appointment somewhere on the way just to get tax relief. To get tax relief, the employee must be able to show that the attendance at the particular place on that occasion was necessary – in a real sense – for the performance of the duties of that employment and was not just a matter of personal convenience.

Similarly, an employer cannot turn an ordinary commuting journey into a business journey by asking an employee to stop off on the way to carry out business tasks such as making phone calls.

For more information, read:

• paragraph 2.6 of whether or not travel qualifies for tax relief (Chapter 2)
• paragraphs 4.3 to 4.5 of safeguards against abuse (Chapter 4)

Where someone other than the employee pays or provides for their ordinary commuting (by reimbursing the costs, by paying directly for the travel or by providing travel facilities) and this arises from or by reason of the employment, the payment or provision is taxable.

Reimbursements must be included as gross pay for PAYE purposes. All such payments and benefits should be reported on form P11D or a Full Payment Submission ( FPS ) if the employer is registered to payroll benefits. The tax charge arises irrespective of whether the payment or provision is made by the employer or by a third party.

There is an exemption for certain specific benefits provided through a travel plan. A travel plan is a package of practical measures designed to reduce car use for journeys to and from work, and for business travel. Travel plans are put together by employers, and can be adapted to suit the particular needs of individual sites.

Examples of what could be included in a travel plan include:

• a works bus provided by an employer that is available to all employees generally to transport them to and from work
• cycles or cycling safety equipment

To encourage staff to move to a new site at an out of town industrial development, an employer lays on a free bus service for his employees. Because the bus service is available to all employees generally to transport them to and from work there will be no tax charge.

Private travel

No tax relief is available for journeys which are private travel. Private travel is a journey between:

• an employee’s home and any other place they do not have to be for work purposes
• any 2 places an employee does not have to be for work purposes

Guy is an administrator. He has a permanent workplace in Derby. At certain times of the year he has work to do over the weekend. Generally, he takes it with him to his holiday cottage in Cornwall where he goes with his family most weekends.

Working in Cornwall does not make his holiday cottage a temporary workplace. His journey there is private travel and he is not entitled to tax relief for any cost.

No tax relief is available for travel that is made for private rather than for work purposes, even if that travel is to or from a workplace which, in other circumstances, would be a temporary workplace.

As part of her duties as a supervisor for a chain of supermarkets, Hannah has to visit different outlets. She gets tax relief for her travel. However, in addition Hannah is usually invited to the Christmas parties held at these outlets. She cannot get tax relief for this travel because it’s not for work purposes.

Permanent workplace

It is usually clear whether or not a place is an employee’s permanent workplace (and, therefore, whether a journey to or from that place is ordinary commuting).

A place is a permanent workplace if the employee attends it regularly for the performance of the duties of the employment and it’s not a temporary workplace.

A temporary workplace is somewhere the employee goes only to perform a task of limited duration or for a temporary purpose.

Paragraph 3.11 explains ‘attends regularly’, paragraphs 3.13 to 3.28 explain ‘temporary workplace’, ‘limited duration’ and ‘temporary purpose’.

Regular attendance at a workplace

An employee attends a workplace regularly if their attendance:

• is frequent
• follows a pattern
• is for all or almost all of the period for which they hold or are likely to hold that employment

It’s reasonable to class anything done repeatedly, with some sort of consistency, that is, frequent or habitual, or follows a pattern, as ‘regular’ attendance. This means that fortnightly travel, for example, is capable of being regarded as ‘regular’. However, it’s possible that the attendance might be for a temporary purpose. The longer the interval between each visit, the higher the possibility that the purpose of the visit is a temporary one, therefore each set of circumstances will need to be considered on its own merits.

It’s possible for an employee to have 2 or more permanent workplaces. The employee will not be entitled to tax relief for the costs incurred in travelling from home to any of the permanent workplaces (see paragraph 3.43 ).

Non-executive directors

We regard non-executive directors as office holders, which means that the same rules relating to travel expenses apply to them as to employees generally.

In determining whether tax relief is available for the costs of a particular journey, consideration must be given to whether the workplace being travelled to is a temporary or permanent workplace.

Dinesh is a non-executive director for a large banking group. The main duty of his role is to attend monthly board meetings which he travels to directly from his home.

The board meetings are all held at the banking groups headquarters in London. As all or almost all of the time that Dinesh spends working for that employer is spent at a single workplace it’s a permanent workplace and no relief for his travel expenses is due.

Temporary workplace – attendance for a limited duration or temporary purpose

A place is a temporary workplace if an employee goes there only to perform a task of limited duration or for a temporary purpose even where the employee attends it regularly.

Task of limited duration

Where an employee attends a workplace for a limited period of time to do a particular task or project then the workplace will be a temporary workplace, even where the employee’s attendance is regular.

This is on the basis that they’re attending for the purpose of performing a task of limited duration. See paragraph 3.18 and the 24-month rule.

Attendance for a temporary purpose

An employee may attend a workplace regularly and perform duties there which are not of limited duration without that workplace becoming a permanent workplace provided the purpose of each visit is for a temporary purpose. See paragraph 3.41 .

Where a visit is self-contained (that is, arranged for a particular reason rather than as part of a series of visits to the same workplace for the continuation of a particular task) it is likely to be for a temporary purpose.

Fred is a safety officer at his employer’s Nottingham office. He visits the employer’s Derby factory every week to carry out a particular safety check. His responsibility for that factory has been a duty of his employment for a period already spanning 20 years (so it’s not of limited duration).

However, the tasks he performs on each visit are self-contained and the purpose of each visit, considered alone, is temporary. Fred is entitled to tax relief for the full cost of his travel.

Gail is the finance director of a large company based in Scunthorpe. Once a fortnight her duties take her to the company’s production unit in the South East. Her visits are to consider individual investment proposals but she takes the opportunity to discuss local welfare issues as a representative of senior management.

The purpose of the visits is not linked, each one is self-contained. So the production unit is not Gail’s permanent workplace and she is entitled to tax relief for the full cost of her business travel.

Peter lives in Wolverhampton and has a permanent workplace in Birmingham. He is a director of a company which has a number of regional offices.

He has to attend a directors’ meeting each Friday in Stafford. Although the directors’ meetings are regularly held in the same place, Stafford does not become a permanent workplace for Peter because each visit is for a temporary purpose. So he is entitled to tax relief for the cost of his travel from home to Stafford.

Gemma is employed as a school teacher in Oswestry which is a permanent workplace. Every fortnight she goes to an education authority meeting in Bridgnorth. She is entitled to tax relief for her travel from home to Bridgnorth because while she goes there regularly each visit is for a temporary purpose.

Where a second workplace is attended for a meeting and other duties are also carried out there for the sake of efficiency, the duration of time spent at the second workplace should not be considered in isolation.

If a meeting is for a temporary purpose and normal duties are performed either side of the meeting to maximise the employee’s use of time, it does not make the second workplace a permanent one. Provided the employee is genuinely attending the second workplace for a temporary purpose and would not normally have been there otherwise, it follows that the second workplace would likely to be a temporary workplace.

Workplaces which are prevented from being temporary workplaces

There are a number of circumstances where, even though the employee attends a workplace to perform a task of limited duration or for some other temporary purpose, it will still be a permanent workplace. This will be the case where the 24 month or fixed term appointment rules apply or where the workplace is a depot or base.

Also, where the workplace is defined by reference to an area, we may treat that area as a permanent workplace. These rules are explained in paragraphs 3.18 to 3.35.

The 24 month rule

The 24 month rule prevents a workplace being a temporary workplace where an employee attends it in the course of a period of continuous work which lasts, or is likely to last, more than 24 months.

A period of continuous work is a period of work throughout which the duties of the employment are performed to a significant extent at that place. For the purposes of operating this rule, we regard duties as performed to a significant extent at any workplace if an employee spends 40% or more of their working time at that place.

The 24 month rule will also apply where an employee’s duties are defined by reference to a particular geographical area. (See paragraph 3.32 ).

This means that where the employee has spent, or is likely to spend, 40% or more of their working time at that particular workplace over a period of more than 24 months, it will be a permanent workplace.

Chris has worked for 5 years at her employer’s head office in Warrington. She is sent by her employer to perform duties at a branch office in Wigan for 18 months, after which she expects to return to work in Warrington.

As Chris’ attendance at the temporary workplace in Wigan is expected to last less than 24 months, tax relief is available for the full cost of her travel between home and the temporary workplace.

Duncan has worked for his employer in Sheffield for 10 years and is sent to help out at the employer’s Rotherham branch for 28 months.

There is no tax relief for the cost of travel to and from the workplace. This is because he will be spending more than 40% of his working time there and his attendance is known from the outset to be for more than 24 months so the workplace is a permanent workplace.

His home to work travel is therefore ordinary commuting for which no relief is available.

The test is whether the employee has spent, or is likely to spend more than 40% of their working time at a particular workplace over a period that lasts or is likely to last more than 24 months.

Where it’s expected that the employee will attend a workplace to perform a task of limited duration or for some other temporary purpose for a period of less than 24 months, the workplace will be a temporary workplace from the outset.

However, if at a later date circumstances change and the employee is required to attend the workplace for a period that extends beyond 24 months, it will stop being a temporary workplace from the date that the expectation changed.

Hassan has worked for his employer for 3 years and is sent to perform full-time duties at a workplace for 28 months.

The posting is unexpectedly ended after 18 months. No tax relief is available for the cost of travel between his home and the workplace, because his attendance is expected to exceed 24 months (though in fact it does not).

The workplace is therefore a permanent workplace and the journey is ordinary commuting.

Richard has worked for his employer for 3 years. He is sent to perform full-time duties at a workplace for 18 months. After 10 months the posting is extended to 28 months.

Tax relief is available for the full cost of travel to and from the workplace during the first 10 months (while his attendance is expected to be for less than 24 months), but not after that (once his attendance is expected to exceed 24 months).

Sarah has worked for her employer for 7 years and is sent to perform full-time duties at a workplace for 28 months. After 10 months the posting is shortened to 18 months.

No tax relief is available for the cost of travel to and from the workplace during the first 10 months (while her attendance is expected to exceed 24 months), but tax relief is available for the full cost of travel during the final 8 months (once her attendance is no longer expected to exceed 24 months).

For the 24 month rule to apply, both parts of the test must be met; for a workplace to be deemed permanent, the employee must have spent or be likely to spend more than 40% of their working time at a workplace and they must attend it or be likely to attend it over a period lasting more than 24 months.

Edward lives and works in Portsmouth where he is employed as an engineer. His employer sends him to work in Southampton for 1 and a half days a week for 28 months. For the rest of the week he continues to work in Portsmouth which remains a permanent workplace.

In considering whether Edward is entitled to tax relief for travel between home and Southampton it’s important to look at the amount of time he expects to spend there each week and for how long he expects to be in Southampton.

Because he expects to be in Southampton, for less than 40% of his working time, albeit over a period longer than 24 months, and he retains a permanent workplace in Portsmouth, Southampton is a temporary workplace for Edward and he is entitled to tax relief for the cost of getting there and back.

Caroline is employed as a laboratory assistant. She lives in Newport and works in Cardiff. Her employer opens a new laboratory in Swansea. Caroline is sent to work there 4 days a week and expects to be there for 30 months.

She is not entitled to tax relief for travel from home to Swansea because she is spending more than 40% of her time at the new laboratory and expects to be there for more than 24 months. It’s therefore a permanent workplace.

Caroline is not entitled to tax relief for travel from home to Cardiff for the one day a week she goes there because her attendance there is not to perform a task of limited duration or for a temporary purpose. The Cardiff laboratory remains a permanent workplace.

Steven is employed as a financial adviser working in Brighton. His employer sends him to an office in Bournemouth for one day a week over a 10 month period.

He travels to Bournemouth directly from his home in Hastings. Steven is entitled to tax relief for his travel to Bournemouth because he has gone there for a temporary purpose.

He does not expect to spend more than 40% of his time there nor does he expect to be going there for more than 24 months.

Neil is employed as a speech therapist at a hospital in Leeds. His employer sends him to Bradford for 3 days a week to supervise a new department there.

He expects to be in Bradford for 18 months. Neil is entitled to tax relief for his travel from home to Bradford.

Although he is spending more than 40% of his time in Bradford he does not expect to be there for more than 24 months so Bradford is a temporary workplace.

Alan lives in Tewkesbury and has a part-time job working 2 days a week in Cheltenham as a telephonist for an insurance company. He is asked to spend one of his 2 working days covering for a colleague at a branch in Gloucester for a period of 32 months.

Alan is not entitled to tax relief for travel between home and Gloucester because, while he spends only one day a week in Gloucester, this is more than 40% of his working time and he expects to be there for more than 24 months.

Alan is not entitled to tax relief for the journey he makes between home and Cheltenham on the other day he works because Cheltenham remains a permanent workplace.

Usually it will be clear whether or not an employee expects to spend more than 40% of their working time at a particular workplace over a period of more than 24 months.

Where there is some uncertainty, cases should be decided on their facts. An obvious starting point is what the employee has been told about the length of the assignment. Another point to consider may be whether the employee has moved home as a result of the change in workplace.

An employee may be less likely to relocate for a posting that is expected to last under 24 months than for one that is expected to last longer. That is not to say, if someone does move home as a result of a change of workplace, it necessarily means they expect the new workplace to be permanent, or that if they do not move home they necessarily expect the new workplace to be temporary.

Moving home is not a test, it’s only one factor to consider – but it’s an important one. See paragraph 8.9 of Tax rules on other types of travel and related expenses (Chapter 8) .

Long construction projects

It will often be the case in the construction industry that workers will be moved from site to site on a regular basis by their employer. In these circumstances, where the employee’s attendance at the site is not expected to last longer than 24 months it will be considered a temporary workplace and tax relief will be available for the cost of travel and subsistence incurred in travelling to that site.

It is important to remember when applying the 24 month rule that the test is whether the employee has spent or is likely to spend more than 40% of their working time at a workplace for a period which lasts or is likely to last more than 24 months.

This means that where an employee is initially expected to work at a site for a period of less than 24 months but at a later date their employer extends the period to longer than 24 months, it will be a temporary workplace up until the date that the period is extended, after which it will be a permanent workplace.

Similarly, where an employee is needed to work at a particular site on a construction project which is initially expected to last 18 months that site will be a temporary workplace.

If, for example due to delays, that project is later extended so that it‘s expected to last for 30 months and the employee is expected to carry on working at the site for the duration of the project, that site will become a permanent workplace from the date that project’s expected duration changed.

Breaks in attendance

A period of continuous work can remain continuous even where there is a break in attendance.

Susan is employed as a human resources consultant. She expects to spend all her working time at a client’s site for 23 months.

She works full-time at the client’s site for 17 months developing a new staff appraisal system and then deals with unexpected priority work elsewhere for 3 months. She then returns to the client’s site for a further 6 months to co-ordinate the roll-out of the new system.

Susan is entitled to tax relief for her travel from home to the site during the first 17 months because she does not during that time expect to be at the site for more than 24 months. She is not, however, entitled to tax relief for her travel from home to the client’s site for the further 6 months.

That is because she now expects to spend 23 out of the 26 months at that site, which will be more than 40% of her working time over a period longer than 24 months.

Construction projects in phases

Sometimes construction projects will be completed in phases. Where this happens employees working on the construction project site may be moved by their employer to work on a different project in the intervening period and then later return to the original site to work on the next phase of the project.

In determining whether the 24 month rule applies in these circumstances you must still consider whether the employee has attended the workplace for more than 40% of their working time over a period of more than 24 months. The fact that there is a break in the employee’s attendance at the workplace does not alter this.

John is a labourer employed by a large construction company to work on the building of a new airport terminal. The building work is to be carried out in phases with the first phase expected to take 18 months to complete.

John attends the site for 18 months until the first phase is completed. He has no expectation of returning to that site. His employer then moves him to a different building project for 6 months after which his employer asks him to return to the original site to complete the second phase of building work which lasts 12 months.

The purpose of John’s attendance is to complete a task of limited duration so during the first 18 months it will be a temporary workplace as John’s attendance is for a period of less than 24 months.

However, when he returns to the airport site he expects to spend 30 out of 36 months working there, and expects to spend more than 40% of his working time there in a period lasting more than 24 months (18 + 6 + 12 = 36 months). This means that during the final 12 months the airport site will be a permanent workplace.

Robert is a labourer employed by a construction company to work on the building of a new sporting venue. The first phase of the sporting venue project lasts for 6 months.

Robert attends the site 5 days a week (a total of 132 days over the 6 month period).

After the first phase is complete Robert’s employer moves him to work on a different project site for 6 months. Robert does not expect to return for the second phase of construction at the sporting venue. He attends the second site for a total of 132 days over the 6 month period.

Robert’s employer then moves him to work on a third construction site. After 3 months working on the third site (66 working days) the second phase of the sporting venue project starts. This phase is expected to last 12 months.

Robert’s employer then asks him to work one day a week at the sporting venue and 4 days a week at the third site. Over the 12 month period Robert works 52 days at the sporting venue and 212 days at the third property site.

The sporting venue is capable of being a temporary workplace as the purpose of Robert’s attendance is to complete a task of limited duration. During the first 6 months it will be a temporary workplace as Robert’s attendance is for less than 24 months.

When Robert returns to the sporting venue site he expects to spend a total of 184 days there (132 in the first phase plus 52 in the second phase) out of 594 working days over the whole period which works out to 31% of his working time. Although the total period lasts more than 24 months (6 + 6 + 3 + 12 = 27), as Robert only spends 31% of his working time there the sporting venue site remains a temporary workplace.

Roger is a labourer employed by a construction company to work on the building of the same new sporting venue as Robert. The first phase of the sporting venue project lasts for 6 months.

Roger attends the site 5 days a week (a total of 132 days over the 6 month period).

After the first phase is complete Roger’s employer moves him to work on a different project site for 6 months. Roger does not expect to return for the second phase of construction at the sporting venue. He attends the second site for a total of 132 days over the 6 month period.

Roger’s employer then moves him to work on a third construction site. After 3 months working on that site (66 working days) the second phase of the sporting venue project starts. This phase is expected to last 12 months. Unlike Robert, Roger’s employer asks him to work 3 days a week at the sporting venue and 2 days a week at the third site.

This means that over the 12 month period Roger works 158 days at the sporting venue and 106 days at the third site.

The sporting venue is capable of being a temporary workplace as the purpose of Roger’s attendance is to complete a task of limited duration. So during the first 6 months it will be a temporary workplace as Roger’s attendance is for less than 24 months.

When Roger returns to the sporting venue site he expects to spend a total of 290 days there (132 in the first phase plus 158 in the second phase) out of 594 working days over the whole period which works out to 49% of his working time.

As the total period lasts more than 24 months (6 + 6 + 3 + 12 = 27) and as Roger spends 49% of his working time there the sporting venue site will be a permanent workplace when he returns for the second phase.

No requirement to return to a permanent workplace

An employee does not need to have a permanent workplace to go back to, to get tax relief for travel to a temporary workplace.

Viv starts a new job as a trainee manager for a building society. When she starts her job her employer has not decided where she will be based. As part of her induction into the building society, for the first 2 months Viv is required to spend a few weeks working full-time at each of a number of branches learning about the wide range of services the building society provides. After 2 months she is given a permanent posting to a branch in Swansea.

Viv is entitled to tax relief for the full cost of her journeys from home to the branches she visits in the first 2 months of her employment. Viv is not entitled to tax relief for the cost of travelling from her home to Swansea, once this becomes her permanent posting, because this is an ordinary commuting journey.

The fixed term appointment rule

The fixed term appointment rule prevents a workplace being a temporary workplace where an employee attends, or is likely to attend, it in the course of a period of continuous work for all or almost all of the period that they’re likely to hold the employment.

A period of continuous work for this purpose has the same meaning as it does for the 24 month rule – that is it’s a period during which the employee spends or is likely to spend more than 40% of their working time at a particular workplace.

For the purpose of operating the fixed term appointment rule we regard a period as being all or almost all of the period that the employee is likely to hold the employment where that period is more than 80% of the likely duration of the employment.

This means that the test is whether the employee has spent, or is likely to spend, 40% or more of their working time at that particular workplace for more than 80% of the likely duration of the employment.

The fixed term appointment rule will also apply where an employee’s duties are defined by reference to a geographical area. (See paragraph 3.32 ).

Mike is taken on for a fixed term employment of 18 months to work at a particular site. No tax relief is available for the cost of travel to and from the site during that period.

Laura is employed as a research scientist on a fixed term contract lasting 15 months. Most of her work is to be done in research laboratories in Upminster but to familiarise her with equipment which is new to her, her employer first sends her to the manufacturer’s premises in Inverness.

Laura is entitled to tax relief for her travel to and from Inverness, but not for her travel from home to and from Upminster because it’s the place where she will carry out duties for almost all of her employment.

Depots and similar bases

Where the main reason an employee regularly attends a workplace is because it’s the:

• base from which they work
• place where they’re routinely allocated we’ll not regard their attendance as being of a limited duration or for a temporary purpose

Ian is employed as a bus driver. He picks up his vehicle from a depot each day.

Attendance at that depot at the start and finish of each shift may be brief but the depot is still his permanent workplace.

There is no tax relief for the cost of Ian’s travel between home and the depot because it’s ordinary commuting.

This does not mean that every place from which an employee works or at which they are allocated tasks is necessarily a permanent workplace.

We’ll regard a depot or similar workplace as a permanent workplace if:

• the employee attends it regularly
• the main reason the employee goes there is because it’s the place from which they work or at which they’re routinely allocated tasks
• it’s the main or only place from which the employee works or at which they’re routinely allocated tasks

Jane is employed as a management consultant. She has no permanent workplace. She spends most of her time working from home or at the premises of various clients.

At other times she ‘hot-desks’ at her employer’s offices in various locations or works on the train while travelling between clients.

Jane can be allocated tasks while she is at any of these places. But this is not the reason she goes there. She goes to visit clients and carry out other tasks of limited duration.

Even though she is sometimes allocated tasks at each of these places none of them is her permanent workplace.

However, where an employee regularly attends a workplace to be routinely allocated tasks while there, that workplace will be a permanent workplace – even if certain tasks are allocated to the employee elsewhere.

Matthew is employed as an electrician. Each morning he visits a depot where he is given his job list for the day.

His employer usually contacts him during the day to make changes to that job list. He is therefore, allocated tasks in many different places.

However, Matthew’s depot is still the place he attends regularly where he is routinely allocated tasks and it’s, therefore, his permanent workplace. So, travel between his home and the depot is ordinary commuting for which no tax relief is available.

Matthew will still be able to claim tax relief for his business travel.

Jill is employed as a plumber. She has no permanent workplace and can work on more than 100 sites in any one year. She receives instructions about where to work over the phone.

She calls into her employer’s premises most Wednesdays to collect piping and replacement tools. Calls of this type do not make the employer’s premises into a depot or other permanent workplace.

Jill can claim tax relief for all her journeys.

Duties defined by reference to a particular geographical area

Some employees have a job where their duties are defined by reference to a particular geographical area. Where these employees have no other permanent workplace the geographical area will be their permanent workplace.

In each case the test will be whether the employee’s duties are defined by reference to a particular geographical area.

It is important to remember that an employee will only have a geographical area as their permanent workplace where all the following conditions are met.

• The employee has no other permanent workplace.
• The employee attends the area in the performance of their duties.
• The employee has a job where the duties are defined by reference to a geographical area.

Henry lives in Norwich and is a relief manager for a chain of East Anglian regional tourist board offices. He shares responsibility for providing cover for all the offices, attending an office for a full day on each occasion.

There is no regular pattern to his work. His duties are defined by reference to a particular geographical area.

As the area is his permanent workplace Henry is not entitled to tax relief for his non-business travel costs.

Liz is a social worker. Her duties are defined by reference to an area but she has an office which she regularly attends. Although much of her time is spent visiting clients within her area, her office is a permanent workplace.

So her travel between home and the office is ordinary commuting for which she is not entitled to tax relief.

Her travel to and from the clients is business travel.

Hugh is employed by a firm of land agents. His contract of employment defines his duties by reference to the county of Lancashire. Hugh does not live in Lancashire.

However, Hugh actually works in a different office each day of the week but in the same office on the same day each week.

Hugh is not entitled to tax relief for any of his journeys from home to any of the offices including his travel from the edge of Lancashire to any of the offices he visits.

This is because the rules for areas do not apply since Hugh has 5 permanent workplaces (see paragraph 3.10 ).

For employees who have an area treated as their permanent workplace, the whole of the geographical area is the workplace.

So if they live outside that area the journey between home (or any other place they visit other than in the performance of the duties of that employment) and the edge of the geographical area is ordinary commuting with no tax relief available for the cost of that journey.

Charlotte is employed as a gamekeeper on a large country estate. She does not work at any particular site; her duties are defined in terms of the estate as a whole. The estate as a whole is her permanent workplace.

Charlotte lives outside the estate. She is not entitled to tax relief for the cost of her travel between home and the boundaries of the estate – that travel is ordinary commuting.

Mark works on the London Underground network. He has no office and his duties are defined by reference to the area served by the network – so the whole of this geographical area is his permanent workplace.

Mark lives in Leeds. Each Monday he travels to London and stays in a hotel before returning home on Friday. He is entitled to tax relief for the full cost of the business journeys he makes within the geographical area served by the London Underground network.

No tax relief is available for the cost of his journey between home and the edge of that geographical area or for the cost of his hotel accommodation in London. These costs are attributable to ordinary commuting.

An employee whose duties are defined by reference to a particular geographical area is entitled to tax relief for the full cost of business travel:

• made within the geographical area
• to other workplaces outside the area

Hope lives in Perth and is employed by a Scottish utility company. She has no office and her duties are defined by reference to the whole of the geographical area of Scotland which is her permanent workplace.

Sometimes Hope has to travel long distances within Scotland and occasionally she goes to London on business. This often involves meals while travelling and staying in hotels.

Hope is entitled to tax relief for these travel costs in full.

Where an employee has no site that is their permanent workplace and the duties of the employment are defined by reference to a geographical area, the occasional performance of duties outside that area will not prevent the area from being a permanent workplace.

Gary is a police officer. He has a community liaison role which mainly involves visiting schools and other organisations within the area covered by his police authority. Although nominally attached to a particular station, Gary does not regularly attend that station and no particular site qualifies as his permanent workplace.

However, his duties are defined by reference to the area covered by the police authority, so that geographical area is his permanent workplace.

Each year Gary visits universities across the country to recruit new officers. He visits each university for a temporary purpose. These visits do not change his permanent workplace which remains the geographical area covered by his police authority.

Employees who work at home

Whether or not an employee’s home is a workplace does not affect the availability of tax relief for travel expenses. Travel expenses from home to a permanent workplace will only qualify for tax relief if the journey qualifies as travel in the performance of the duties of the employment.

Even though it may have been accepted that the employee’s home is a workplace, it does not necessarily follow that they’ll be entitled to tax relief for the cost of travel between their home and a permanent workplace.

This is because the place where an employee lives will ordinarily be down to their personal choice. The expense of travelling from their home to any other place is a consequence of that personal choice; not an objective requirement of the job.

Chandra is a home based sales consultant living in Derby for a company whose office is in Nottingham. He carries out a large part of his substantive duties at home.

He was employed on the basis that his employer requires him to work from home 4 days a week and one day a week in the Nottingham office. On the day that he attends the office a desk and facilities are available for him to use however these are not available on the other 4 days.

Chandra is entitled to claim tax relief for some of the additional costs he incurs from having to work from home however he is not entitled to any tax relief for the costs he incurs in travelling from his home to the Nottingham office.

This is on the basis that the Nottingham office is Chandra’s permanent workplace as he attends it regularly and his attendance is not to perform a task of limited duration or for some other temporary purpose.

That Chandra’s home is a workplace for the purpose of claiming tax relief for additional household expenses does not change the fact that he is travelling between his home and a permanent workplace.

His travel to the Nottingham office is ordinary commuting.

Where an employee performs substantive duties of their employment at home as an objective requirement of the job, we may accept their home as a workplace for the purposes of the ‘travelling in the performance of the duties’ rule (see paragraph 2.5 ).

Where this is the case the employee will be entitled to tax relief for the expenses of travelling from home to other workplaces as their travel is in the performance of their duties.

Usually, we’ll only accept that working at home is an objective requirement of the job if the employee needs certain facilities to perform those duties, and those facilities are only practically available to the employee at their home.

We will not accept that working at home is an objective requirement of the job if the employer provides appropriate facilities in another location that could be practically used by the employee, or the employee works from home as a matter of choice.

Angela is an area sales manager who lives in Glasgow. She manages the company’s regional sales team across Scotland. As the company’s nearest office is in Newcastle Angela cannot practically attend that office and needs to carry out her administrative work at home.

Angela’s employer needs her to keep all client information securely at home, and so Angela cannot carry out that administrative work anywhere else.

Angela is entitled to tax relief for the expenses she incurs in travelling from her home to the company’s office in Newcastle, as well as for her journeys within Scotland.

Even where the employee works at home as an objective requirement of the employment, tax relief for the cost of travel between their home and their permanent workplace will only be due for travel made on days where the employee’s home is a workplace.

Only on those days is the employee travelling between 2 workplaces. On other days the employee is travelling between their home and a permanent workplace, which is ordinary commuting.

Peter works in his employer’s office for 4 days every week but the requirements of the job dictate that he must work at home every Friday. It’s accepted that his home is a workplace on a Friday.

His travel from home to his employer’s office on Monday to Thursday is ordinary commuting because those premises are a permanent workplace so no tax relief is available for his travel costs on those days.

However, if he is unexpectedly required to visit his employer’s premises on a Friday to carry out the duties of his employment he will get tax relief for his travel costs because he is travelling between 2 workplaces.

An employee is not entitled to tax relief for journeys between their home and any other place attended for reasons other than work, even when home is a workplace. Such travel is private travel.

Tax relief will of course be allowed for the costs incurred on travelling between the employee’s home and a temporary workplace.

Agency workers

Where a worker provides their services through an agency and their income is subject to tax as employment income, and they generally attend only one workplace in respect of each engagement that workplace will usually be a permanent workplace.

Where nurses, domestic workers and others provide their services through an agency and do a number of different jobs on the same day, those workers may get tax relief for travel between those jobs, but not for travel from home to the first job and to home from the last job on each day.

Beth is an accounts clerk who gets all her work through an employment agency. She rarely takes a job which lasts more than 2 weeks. Beth always travels straight from home to work at the premises of the employment agency’s client.

She is not entitled to tax relief for any of these journeys because each job is treated as a separate employment and so all her journeys are ordinary commuting.

Working through an employment intermediary

There are rules about workers who provide their services through an employment intermediary including those employed under overarching contracts of service. When:

• such a worker personally provides services (other than an exception for ‘excluded services’) to a client through an employment intermediary, including a recruitment agency, umbrella company, personal service company ( PSC ) or other similar structure
• their work is similar to that of an employee, then each assignment is treated as a separate employment

A worker who regularly commutes from home to a workplace for each assignment is not eligible for relief on travel and subsistence because such journeys are ordinary commuting, read section 3.2 .

If the work is not similar to that of an employee, each workplace is a temporary workplace with the tax and National Insurance contributions treatment following the existing rules for travel to temporary workplaces.

Joe is a warehouse worker and is engaged via an employment intermediary which employs him under an overarching contract of service. His work is similar to that of an employee.

The client’s premises to which he travels daily to work are permanent workplaces and as such the travel from his home to those premises is ordinary commuting.

Catherine, a computer consultant, is the only employee of a company which she controls. She is a specialist in banking systems. She spends 18 months working full-time at the headquarters of a merchant bank in Lombard Street in the City of London. She then moves next door to design a new computer system for a different bank where she expects to stay working full-time for 22 months.

After that assignment she moves to work at another bank on Cheapside for 17 months. If Catherine had been engaged directly by clients, she would’ve been considered as an employee.

Catherine is not entitled to tax relief for her travel from home to these workplaces because she is providing her services through a PSC and each assignment is treated as a separate employment.

Exception for excluded services

Excluded services are those provided wholly in the client’s home.

Paul works away from home during the week only returning at weekends. As he’s away so much he decides to get help with his domestic chores. During the summer he engages a gardener, George.

George works through his own PSC. As George provides his services in Paul’s home, the rules which treat the client’s workplace as a permanent workplace do not apply. So, George’s travel to Paul’s home is travel to a temporary workplace.

People with more than one workplace at the same time

Someone who has 2 or more employments or is in an employment which requires regular attendance at more than one workplace, may have more than one permanent workplace during the same period.

John is a mortgage adviser employed by a chain of building societies. He works 5 days each week but spends each day in a different branch in a different town.

He works in the same branch on the same day each week. John is not entitled to tax relief for his travel from home to any of the branches.

That is because he travels regularly to each branch and his work is neither of limited duration nor for a temporary purpose. So each branch is a separate permanent workplace.

Mary is employed as an office manager by a firm of architects. The firm operates from offices in Bristol and Bath. Mary spends each morning at the office in Bristol and each afternoon at the office in Bath.

Each office is a permanent workplace. Mary is not entitled to tax relief for the cost of travel between her home and either of the offices. However, travel between the 2 workplaces is travel in the performance of her duties. So tax relief is available for the full cost of this travel.

Tom is a computer games programmer working for a large game studio. He lives in Birmingham and travels daily to the company’s head office which is in Coventry. This is his permanent workplace and his journeys between home and Coventry are ordinary commuting.

The computer game’s artwork is produced by a team of graphic designers who are based at one of the company’s regional offices in Lichfield.

The game is developed in fortnightly sprints and every 2 weeks Tom’s duties require him to visit the Lichfield office to lay down goals for the forthcoming sprint and assess whether the goals he set at his previous visit have been achieved. Tom travels directly from his home in Birmingham to Lichfield on these occasions.

The fortnightly Lichfield visits are regular and part of a series of visits to the same workplace for the continuation of a particular task. Lichfield is therefore also a permanent workplace and travel from his home to those premises is ordinary commuting.

Most employees will not have more than one permanent workplace at the same time. Each case will depend on the particular facts. Things that would point to a workplace being a second permanent workplace include:

• the employee regularly performs a significant part of their duties there
• people would expect to be able to contact the employee at the second location
• the employee has an office, or desk, and support services at the second workplace which they regularly use
• the employee performs similar tasks at each workplace
• the employee does not attend the workplace solely to do specific tasks such as attendance at a specially arranged meeting (see paragraph 3.13 )

Managers working across sites

It is common for managers to have staff in more than one site across various geographical locations within the UK. Where this is the case and they’re required to attend each site regularly it’s possible that those individuals may have more than one permanent workplace.

June is a manager within a government department with staff located in offices in Birmingham and London. June lives near to Birmingham and uses the Birmingham office as her main base, where she performs many of the duties of her employment and considers it her permanent workplace. She has a desk there and her personal assistant works there.

June is expected to visit her staff in London regularly, she spends 3 days a week in Birmingham and 2 days a week in London. She does not have a permanent desk in the London office although there is always a desk available for her to use near her team.

June’s travel to the London office is regular and as her attendance is simply to carryout the ongoing duties of her management role it’s neither to perform a task of limited duration or for some other temporary purpose. The London office is, therefore, a second permanent workplace.

June is entitled to tax relief for the cost she incurs on travelling between the Birmingham and London offices as this is travel in the performance of the duties. She is not entitled to tax relief for travel from her home to either the Birmingham or London offices as this is ordinary commuting.

Helen is a senior manager in a large banking group which has its head office in London. She lives in Leeds and has a permanent workplace at the company’s Leeds office where she carries out the ongoing duties of her role.

Each week Helen needs to travel to the London office to attend various specific management board meetings. She travels to London 3 days each week for this purpose.

Helen’s attendance at the London office is regular, however because it’s purely for the purpose of attending specifically arranged management meetings rather than for the purpose of carrying out the ongoing duties of her role, her attendance is for a temporary purpose. As such the London office is capable of being a temporary workplace.

Helen’s attendance at the London office 3 days a week is, however, more than 40% of her working time and is expected to last longer than 24 months. The London office is, therefore, a permanent workplace.

Ajit works for a sales company managing teams in Reading and Oxford. The company’s head office is in London.

Ajit needs to split his time equally between the Reading and Oxford offices to carry out his management duties. He has a desk and computer in both offices.

Once a week he is also travels to the London office to attend a regular management meeting with all the managers across the company.

Both the Reading and Oxford offices are permanent workplaces as Ajit attends them regularly and his attendance is for the ongoing duties of his role rather than to complete a task of limited duration or for some other temporary purpose.

Therefore he is entitled to tax relief for the costs he incurs in travelling between Oxford and Reading but he is not entitled to tax relief for the costs he incurs in travelling from his home to either the Oxford or Reading offices.

Whilst Ajit’s travel to the London office is regular the purpose of his visits is self-contained therefore his attendance is for a temporary purpose and the London office is a temporary workplace.

No single factor is decisive in establishing whether a second location is a permanent workplace. It depends on the particular work pattern.

If, for example, someone regularly spends 40% of their time at a second location, it’s unlikely, given the frequency of the visits that each visit would be to perform a task of limited duration or for some other temporary purpose.

In these circumstances, we would normally presume that the second location is a permanent workplace.

When a workplace stops being a permanent workplace

Sometimes a place may stop being an employee’s permanent workplace. This may happen, for example, because an employer moves to a place some distance away.

Emily is employed full-time by a bank. She is sent to work for 6 months in a newly opened branch in another town. At the end of that period she accepts a promotion and stays at the new branch. At that point the new branch becomes Emily’s permanent workplace.

Two years later when Emily is asked to cover for an absent colleague in her old branch for a couple of months, she is entitled to tax relief for any cost of travelling from home to the old branch because that is a temporary workplace.

Passing work on the way to somewhere else

An employee may pass a permanent workplace on the way to or from a temporary workplace.

If the employee stops and performs substantive duties at the permanent workplace then there are 2 journeys – ordinary commuting between home and the permanent workplace and a business journey between the permanent workplace and the temporary workplace.

Tax relief will be available for the cost of the second of these journeys – but not the first.

Where the employee does not stop at the permanent workplace, or any stop is incidental to the business journey, all of the journey is business travel.

Darren drives each day between his home in Southampton and his office in Winchester. One day he has to travel on business to Birmingham and back.

He drives directly from home to Birmingham but stops off at his office to pick up some papers.

His stop is incidental to his business journey. His business journey is from his home in Southampton to Birmingham and back.

Tax relief is available for the cost of his journey from his home to Birmingham and back.

Andrew drives each day between his home in Gloucester and his office in Bristol. One day he needs to attend a training event in Bath.

Rather than travelling directly to Bath from his home he has to stop off at his office in Bristol to take part in a telephone conference about a project he has been working on.

After the telephone conference has finished he drives to the training event in Bath.

As Andrew has stopped off at his workplace to carry out substantive duties on the way to the training event in Bath the first part of his journey between home and Bristol is ordinary commuting.

Tax relief is available for the cost of his journey from Bristol to Bath, and from Bath back to his home address as this is travel to a temporary workplace.

Emergency call-out expenses

Employees sometimes have to travel to a permanent workplace unexpectedly or in an emergency. Where the cost of that journey would not qualify for tax relief in normal circumstances, it will not qualify for tax relief just because the journey was made in response to an emergency.

It makes no difference if the journey takes place outside normal working hours or if the employee is returning to the workplace having completed their normal duties there.

Isabel is required to be a keyholder for her permanent workplace. One night she is called out by the police responding to a burglar alarm.

Isabel is not entitled to tax relief for her journey from home because it’s ordinary commuting.

Exceptionally, where an employee is obliged to perform duties at home and while travelling to an emergency at a permanent workplace, the travel may be regarded as travel between 2 workplaces. In such circumstances, the cost of that travel will qualify for tax relief.

To get tax relief, the employee has to:

• give advice on handling the emergency before starting the journey
• accept responsibility for those aspects appropriate to their duties from that time
• have a continuing responsibility for the emergency whilst travelling to the permanent workplace

Jack is employed as a vet. He operates a surgery from his home. He also works at an animal hospital some distance away. It’s an objective requirement of his employment that he perform his duties at these 2 workplaces.

One night he needs to attend an emergency at the hospital. He is phoned at his home or surgery and immediately takes responsibility for the emergency and issues instructions on action to be taken.

While travelling to the hospital he uses a hands-free mobile phone to continue to control the response to the emergency. The journey is between 2 workplaces in the performance of Jack’s duties.

Jack is entitled to tax relief for the cost of this journey to the hospital.

Employee on standby

Where an employee is on stand-by and can be called out at short notice they are still not entitled to tax relief for a journey which is ordinary commuting.

Jane works fixed hours in a restaurant, but can also be called in when there are staff shortages. When she is called in outside her normal hours she is not entitled to tax relief for travel from home to the restaurant because this is ordinary commuting.

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• Per Diem Lookup

Frequently asked questions, per diem

What is per diem?

How do I find the per diem rate for (city/county, state)?

What is the difference between non-standard areas (NSA) and standard CONUS locations?

How are the CONUS per diem rates set for NSAs?

How does GSA set boundary lines for where per diem rates apply?

How can a CONUS non-standard area (NSA) receive a special review?

How can I request the establishment of a new NSA?

What if a city is not listed on the CONUS Per Diem website?

Can hotels refuse to honor the per diem rate to federal government employees and federal government contractors?

Is the hotel’s GOV rate the same as the federal per diem rate?

Are lodging taxes included in the CONUS per diem rate?

Are taxes and gratuity (tips) included in the Meals and Incidental (M&IE) expense rate?

What is considered an incidental expense?

How often is a study conducted on the M&IE expense rates?

What is the M&IE reimbursement rate during the first and last travel day?

Can I combine the lodging and M&IE per diem rates ("mix and match") in order to get a nicer hotel room or spend more on meals?

Do I need to provide receipts?

What do I do if there are no hotels available at per diem?

Do I receive a meal reimbursement for day travel away from my regular duty station?

How much per diem can I pay a contractor?

How much can a trucker deduct for meals per day?

Per diem is an allowance for lodging, meals, and incidental expenses. The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) establishes the per diem reimbursement rates that federal agencies use to reimburse their employees for subsistence expenses incurred while on official travel within the continental U.S. (CONUS), which includes the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia. The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) establishes rates for travel in non-foreign areas outside of CONUS, which includes Alaska, Hawaii, and U.S. territories and possessions. The U.S. Department of State establishes rates for travel in foreign areas. For more information on rates established by DOD and the State Department visit travel.dod.mil and aoprals.state.gov .

Please visit www.gsa.gov/perdiem  to find the rates. Click on a state on the map to view that state's rates or enter the location in the search box. Even though some cities are listed for your lookup convenience, not all cities can or will be listed. To look up the county a destination is located in, visit the Census Geocoder . If neither the city nor county you are looking for is listed on the GSA per diem rate page, then the standard CONUS rate applies.

Non-standard areas (NSAs) are frequently traveled by the federal community and are reviewed on an annual basis. Standard CONUS locations are less frequently traveled by the federal community and are not specifically listed on our website.

Per diem rates are set based upon contractor-provided average daily rate (ADR) data of local lodging properties. The properties must be fire-safe and have a FEMA ID number. The ADR is a travel industry metric that divides room sales rental revenue by the number of rooms sold. All rates are evaluated to ensure that they are fair and equitable in the GSA and Office of Management and Budget approval process. For more detailed information, visit the Factors Influencing Lodging Rates page.

5 U.S.C § 5702 gives the Administrator of the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) the authority to establish the system of reimbursing Federal employees for the subsistence expenses (lodging, meals, and incidentals) of official travel. The law governs how GSA sets rates today, and allows the GSA Administrator to establish locality-based allowances for these expenses with a reporting requirement back to Congress. The law was established to protect Federal employees by fairly reimbursing them for travel expenses. In addition, if a Federal employee cannot find a room within the established per diem rates, the travel policy allows the agency to reimburse the actual hotel charges up to 300 percent of the established per diem rates.

The per diem program has several standards that it follows in its systematic structured per diem methodology. The first level is having a "standard rate" that applies to approximately 85 percent of counties in the continental United States.

It is GSA's policy that, if and when a Federal agency, on behalf of its employees, requests that the standard rate is not adequate in a specific area to cover costs of travel as intended by the law, GSA will study the locality to determine whether the locality under study should become a "non-standard area." If the study recommends a change, a change will be implemented as deemed appropriate. GSA has implemented a process to review and update both the standard and non-standard areas annually.

The standard "boundary line" for where non-standard areas apply is generally one county. This is the case for approximately 85 percent of the non-standard rates that GSA sets. However, in some cases, agencies have requested that the rate apply to an area larger than one county, such as a metropolitan area. In a very small number of cases, an agency can and has requested that a rate apply to just a city and not the entire county. In some rural areas, a rate sometimes applies to more than one county due to lack of an adequate data sample to set a rate otherwise.

GSA uses the Federal Information Processing Series (FIPS) code standard for its apply areas. While GSA often uses ZIP codes to select hotel data samples, the apply area is coded by a FIPS code, unless a Federal agency only wants the rate to apply to certain ZIP codes. These codes are managed by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to ensure uniform identification of geographic entities through all federal government agencies.

In order for GSA to conduct a "special" review of a non-standard area (NSA) during the current fiscal year, a Federal Agency Travel Manager or an equivalent individual in grade or title must submit a signed letter on agency letterhead or stationery stating that the present per diem rate is inadequate. The request should contain the following information:

• The geographical areas you want us to study, especially ZIP codes.
• The property names (including addresses, ZIP codes, and rates) where your federal travelers stay while on temporary duty travel and those properties (including addresses, ZIP codes, and rates) that will not honor the federal lodging per diem rate.
• The number of times actual expenses were used and/or federal travelers had to use another lodging facility to stay within the maximum allowable lodging per diem rate, which resulted in additional transportation expenses (rental car, taxi) being incurred.

All valid requests postmarked no later than 12/31 will be eligible for this review. All valid requests received after 12/31, but before 4/1 will be evaluated during the following fiscal year's annual review cycle. After all the requirements are submitted, GSA will obtain updated data from our contractor to determine whether a per diem rate should be increased, decreased or remain unchanged. We will conduct no more than one "special" review for a particular NSA annually.

Letters should be sent to: General Services Administration, Office of Government-wide Policy, 1800 F St. NW., Washington, DC 20405. For more direct service, please also scan and email your request (a signed letter on agency letterhead must be attached) to [email protected] .

The procedure and the request deadline are the same as FAQ #6. However, requests received after 3/31 will not be included in the following fiscal year's annual review cycle because the annual review will have already begun.

If a city is not listed, check to ensure that the county within which it is located is also not listed. Visit the Census Geocoder to determine the county a destination is located in. If the city is not listed, but the county is, then the per diem rate is the rate for that entire county. If the city and the county are not listed, then that area receives the standard CONUS location rate.

Hotels are not required to honor the federal per diem rates. It is each property’s business decision whether or not to offer the rate. Hotels also may or may not choose to extend the rate to other individuals, such as government contractors.

Hotels sometimes offer a "GOV" rate, which might be different than the federal per diem rate. If it is higher, you need to receive approval for actual expense prior to travel in order to receive full reimbursement. It is the traveler’s responsibility to know the federal per diem reimbursement rates, and should not assume a GOV rate is the same as the federal per diem rate. See the FTR Chapter 301, Subpart D-Actual Expense and follow your agency's guidelines.

Lodging taxes are not included in the CONUS per diem rate. The Federal Travel Regulation 301-11.27 states that in CONUS, lodging taxes paid by the federal traveler are reimbursable as a miscellaneous travel expense limited to the taxes on reimbursable lodging costs. For foreign areas, lodging taxes have not been removed from the foreign per diem rates established by the Department of State. Separate claims for lodging taxes incurred in foreign areas not allowed. Some states and local governments may exempt federal travelers from the payment of taxes. For more information regarding tax exempt status, travelers should visit the State Tax Forms page.

Yes, the meals and incidental expense (M&IE) rate does include taxes and tips in the rate, so travelers will not be reimbursed separately for those items.

The Federal Travel Regulation Chapter 300, Part 300-3 , under Per Diem Allowance, describes incidental expenses as: Fees and tips given to porters, baggage carriers, hotel staff, and staff on ships.

An M&IE study has traditionally been conducted every three to five years. Based upon the recommendations of the Governmentwide Travel Advisory Committee, GSA began reviewing rates every three years starting with rates for FY 2016.

On the first and last travel day, Federal employees are only eligible for 75 percent of the total M&IE rate for their temporary duty travel location (not the official duty station location). For your convenience, the M&IE breakdown page has a table showing the calculated amount for the "First and Last Day of Travel."

For federal employees, the Federal Travel Regulation (FTR) does not make a provision for "mixing and matching" reimbursement rates. The lodging per diem rates are a maximum amount; the traveler only receives actual lodging costs up to that maximum rate. Therefore, there is no "extra" lodging per diem to add to the M&IE rate. Likewise, the M&IE per diem cannot be given up or transferred to lodging costs. See FTR 301-11.100 and 301-11.101 for more information.

For any official temporary travel destination, you must provide a receipt to substantiate your claimed travel expenses for lodging and receipts for any authorized expenses incurred costing over $75, or a reason acceptable to your agency explaining why you are unable to provide the necessary receipt (see Federal Travel Regulation 301-11.25 ).

You may ask your agency to authorize the actual expense allowance provision. The Federal Travel Regulation (FTR) 301-11.300 through 306 notes that if lodging is not available at your temporary duty location, your agency may authorize or approve the maximum per diem rate of up to 300% of per diem for the location where lodging is obtained. You should also ensure you have checked www.fedrooms.com to confirm there are no rooms available at per diem in the area where you need to travel.

According to the Federal Travel Regulation (FTR), travelers are entitled to 75% of the prescribed meals and incidental expenses for one day travel away from your official station if it is longer than 12 hours. Please see FTR 301-11.101 .

GSA establishes per diem rates and related policies for federal travelers on official travel only, and cannot address specific inquiries concerning the payment of contractors. If the contractor is on a federal contract, check with the contracting officer to see what is stated in their contract. Contractors should also check the travel regulations of their company.

GSA establishes per diem rates, along with its policies for federal employees on official travel only. Truck-related questions should be addressed either to the Department of Transportation ( www.dot.gov ) or the Internal Revenue Service ( www.irs.gov ).

PER DIEM LOOK-UP

1 choose a location.

Error, The Per Diem API is not responding. Please try again later.

No results could be found for the location you've entered.

Rates for Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. Territories and Possessions are set by the Department of Defense .

Rates for foreign countries are set by the State Department .

2 Choose a date

Rates are available between 10/1/2021 and 09/30/2024.

The End Date of your trip can not occur before the Start Date.

Traveler reimbursement is based on the location of the work activities and not the accommodations, unless lodging is not available at the work activity, then the agency may authorize the rate where lodging is obtained.

Unless otherwise specified, the per diem locality is defined as "all locations within, or entirely surrounded by, the corporate limits of the key city, including independent entities located within those boundaries."

Per diem localities with county definitions shall include "all locations within, or entirely surrounded by, the corporate limits of the key city as well as the boundaries of the listed counties, including independent entities located within the boundaries of the key city and the listed counties (unless otherwise listed separately)."

When a military installation or Government - related facility(whether or not specifically named) is located partially within more than one city or county boundary, the applicable per diem rate for the entire installation or facility is the higher of the rates which apply to the cities and / or counties, even though part(s) of such activities may be located outside the defined per diem locality.

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Topic no. 511, Business travel expenses

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Travel expenses are the ordinary and necessary expenses of traveling away from home for your business, profession, or job. You can't deduct expenses that are lavish or extravagant, or that are for personal purposes.

You're traveling away from home if your duties require you to be away from the general area of your tax home for a period substantially longer than an ordinary day's work, and you need to get sleep or rest to meet the demands of your work while away.

Generally, your tax home is the entire city or general area where your main place of business or work is located, regardless of where you maintain your family home. For example, you live with your family in Chicago but work in Milwaukee where you stay in a hotel and eat in restaurants. You return to Chicago every weekend. You may not deduct any of your travel, meals or lodging in Milwaukee because that's your tax home. Your travel on weekends to your family home in Chicago isn't for your work, so these expenses are also not deductible. If you regularly work in more than one place, your tax home is the general area where your main place of business or work is located.

In determining your main place of business, take into account the length of time you normally need to spend at each location for business purposes, the degree of business activity in each area, and the relative significance of the financial return from each area. However, the most important consideration is the length of time you spend at each location.

You can deduct travel expenses paid or incurred in connection with a temporary work assignment away from home. However, you can't deduct travel expenses paid in connection with an indefinite work assignment. Any work assignment in excess of one year is considered indefinite. Also, you may not deduct travel expenses at a work location if you realistically expect that you'll work there for more than one year, whether or not you actually work there that long. If you realistically expect to work at a temporary location for one year or less, and the expectation changes so that at some point you realistically expect to work there for more than one year, travel expenses become nondeductible when your expectation changes.

Travel expenses for conventions are deductible if you can show that your attendance benefits your trade or business. Special rules apply to conventions held outside the North American area.

Deductible travel expenses while away from home include, but aren't limited to, the costs of:

• Travel by airplane, train, bus or car between your home and your business destination. (If you're provided with a ticket or you're riding free as a result of a frequent traveler or similar program, your cost is zero.)
• The airport or train station and your hotel,
• The hotel and the work location of your customers or clients, your business meeting place, or your temporary work location.
• Shipping of baggage, and sample or display material between your regular and temporary work locations.
• Using your car while at your business destination. You can deduct actual expenses or the standard mileage rate, as well as business-related tolls and parking fees. If you rent a car, you can deduct only the business-use portion for the expenses.
• Lodging and non-entertainment-related meals.
• Dry cleaning and laundry.
• Business calls while on your business trip. (This includes business communications by fax machine or other communication devices.)
• Tips you pay for services related to any of these expenses.
• Other similar ordinary and necessary expenses related to your business travel. (These expenses might include transportation to and from a business meal, public stenographer's fees, computer rental fees, and operating and maintaining a house trailer.)

Instead of keeping records of your meal expenses and deducting the actual cost, you can generally use a standard meal allowance, which varies depending on where you travel. The deduction for business meals is generally limited to 50% of the unreimbursed cost.

If you're self-employed, you can deduct travel expenses on Schedule C (Form 1040), Profit or Loss From Business (Sole Proprietorship) , or if you're a farmer, on Schedule F (Form 1040), Profit or Loss From Farming .

If you're a member of the National Guard or military reserve, you may be able to claim a deduction for unreimbursed travel expenses paid in connection with the performance of services as a reservist that reduces your adjusted gross income. This travel must be overnight and more than 100 miles from your home. Expenses must be ordinary and necessary. This deduction is limited to the regular federal per diem rate (for lodging, meals, and incidental expenses) and the standard mileage rate (for car expenses) plus any parking fees, ferry fees, and tolls. Claim these expenses on Form 2106, Employee Business Expenses and report them on Form 1040 , Form 1040-SR , or Form 1040-NR as an adjustment to income.

Good records are essential. Refer to Topic no. 305 for information on recordkeeping. For more information on these and other travel expenses, refer to Publication 463, Travel, Entertainment, Gift, and Car Expenses .

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Personal Conveyance

Personal conveyance is the movement of a commercial motor vehicle (CMV) for personal use while off-duty. A driver may record time operating a CMV for personal conveyance as off-duty only when the driver is relieved from work and all responsibility for performing work by the motor carrier. The CMV may be used for personal conveyance even if it is laden, since the load is not being transported for the commercial benefit of the motor carrier at that time. Personal conveyance does not reduce a driver’s or motor carrier’s responsibility to operate a CMV safely. Motor carriers can establish personal conveyance limitations either within the scope of, or more restrictive than, the guidance provided here .

Click here for a recorded presentation that provides an overview of the revised personal conveyance guidance; the corresponding powerpoint slides are available here .

Click here for answers to frequently asked questions regarding personal conveyance and FMCSA’s recent regulatory guidance.  

FMCSA updates the guidance for § 395.8 Driver’s Record of Duty Status to read as follows:

Question 26: Under what circumstances may a driver operate a commercial motor vehicle (CMV) as a personal conveyance?

Guidance : A driver may record time operating a CMV for personal conveyance (i.e., for personal use or reasons) as off-duty only when the driver is relieved from work and all responsibility for performing work by the motor carrier. The CMV may be used for personal conveyance even if it is laden, since the load is not being transported for the commercial benefit of the carrier at that time. Personal conveyance does not reduce a driver’s or motor carrier’s responsibility to operate a CMV safely. Motor carriers can establish personal conveyance limitations either within the scope of, or more restrictive than, this guidance, such as banning use of a CMV for personal conveyance purposes, imposing a distance limitation on personal conveyance, or prohibiting personal conveyance while the CMV is laden.

Examples of Appropriate Uses of a CMV While Off-duty for Personal Conveyance

The following are examples of appropriate uses of a CMV while off-duty for personal conveyance include, but are not limited to:

• Time spent traveling from a driver’s en route lodging (such as a motel or truck stop) to restaurants and entertainment facilities.
• Commuting between the driver’s terminal and his or her residence, between trailer-drop lots and the driver’s residence, and between work sites and his or her residence. In these scenarios, the commuting distance combined with the release from work and start to work times must allow the driver enough time to obtain the required restorative rest as to ensure the driver is not fatigued. 
• Time spent traveling to a nearby, reasonable, safe location to obtain required rest after loading or unloading. The time driving under personal conveyance must allow the driver adequate time to obtain the required rest in accordance with minimum off-duty periods under 49 CFR 395.3(a)(1) (property-carrying vehicles) or 395.5(a) (passenger-carrying vehicles) before returning to on-duty driving, and the resting location must be the first such location reasonably available.
• Moving a CMV at the request of a safety official during the driver’s off-duty time
• Time spent traveling in a motorcoach without passengers to en route lodging (such as motel or truck stop), or to restaurants and entertainment facilities and back to the lodging. In this scenario, the driver of the motorcoach can claim personal conveyance provided the driver is off-duty. Other off-duty drivers may be on board the vehicle, and are not considered passengers.
• Time spent transporting personal property while off-duty.
• Authorized use of a CMV to travel home after working at an offsite location. 

Examples of Uses of a CMV that Would Not Qualify as Personal Conveyance

The following are examples of uses of a CMV that would not qualify as personal conveyance include, but are not limited to, the following:

• The movement of a CMV in order to enhance the operational readiness of a motor carrier. For example, bypassing available resting locations in order to get closer to the next loading or unloading point or other scheduled motor carrier destination.
• After delivering a towed unit, and the towing unit no longer meets the definition of a CMV, the driver returns to the point of origin under the direction of the motor carrier to pick up another towed unit.
• Continuation of a CMV trip in interstate commerce in order to fulfill a business purpose, including bobtailing or operating with an empty trailer in order to retrieve another load or repositioning a CMV (tractor or trailer) at the direction of the motor carrier.
• Time spent driving a passenger-carrying CMV while passenger(s) are on board. Off-duty drivers are not considered passengers when traveling to a common destination of their own choice within the scope of this guidance.  
• Time spent transporting a CMV to a facility to have vehicle maintenance performed.
• After being placed out of service for exceeding the maximum periods permitted under part 395, time spent driving to a location to obtain required rest, unless so directed by an enforcement officer at the scene.
• Time spent traveling to a motor carrier’s terminal after loading or unloading from a shipper or a receiver.
• Time spent operating a motorcoach when luggage is stowed, the passengers have disembarked and the driver has been directed to deliver the luggage.