Travel and subsistence

Site-based employees

Site-based employees do not have a fixed base and perform their work duties at different locations. These duties generally last for periods longer than one day.

You can pay your employees expenses of travel and subsistence, (known as 'country money' in the construction industry), not exceeding the approved rate.

In order to qualify for these expenses, the employee must be:

• working at a site 32km (20 miles) or more from your base
• or
• working 32km or more from the General Post Office (GPO), if the employee is Dublin based.

Approved country money rates:

• €36.34 per day for four days or less.
• or
• €181.68 per week for more than four days.

Exclusions

You cannot pay your employee tax-free expenses of travel and subsistence if:

• your employee does not have to pay to travel to and from the site (for example, if you provide the transport)
• Your provide your employee with board and lodgings
• or 
• your employee was recruited to work at one site only.

You must retain records relating to the payment of country money for six years.

Eating on site

You may pay an ‘eating on site’ allowance, tax free, to site-based employees in some sectors of the economy if:

• you do not provide facilities for making tea, coffee, or other refreshments
• your employee does not receive any other form of tax-free subsistence payment
• your employee works on the site for at least 1.5 hours before and 1.5 hours after their normal lunch break
• and
• you pay a maximum allowance of €5 per day.

Next: Voluntary work