My first work-related travel – what do I need to know... ?

There is a deadline of 6 months. After that, a reimbursement of your travel expenses will no longer be possible.

For the reimbursement, please use the sheet for calculating your expenses, which you can find here: Claim Form for Travel Expenses. Please attach the original travel request for a business trip and the original receipts when you submit your claim form.

You can apply for an advance payment of 80% on the expected expenses. You can do this by sending the authorised request form via email or via the in-house postal service to the members of staff responsible for claims for travel expenses at the HR Department. The advance payment will be made 10 days before the start of your trip, unless expenses have already been incurred. If this is the case, please send the bills alongside the request form to the responsible members of staff.

You can claim the expenses for a Deutschland-Ticket if it was the cheapest way to cover the travel costs, see information sheet: Information sheet on the use of Deutschland-Tickets on Business Trips [de]

You can use higher travel classes, but you will only be reimbursed the price of a second class (train) or economy class (plane) ticket. If you are travelling in a higher class, please add proof of how much the lowest class would have cost at the time of booking to your travel expenses claim form. Reimbursement of a higher class is possible if the plane flight takes longer than 8 hours non-stop.

No, domestic flights cannot be reimbursed, neither can the fictitious costs of a train ticket.

In Germany, the maximum amount for accommodation costs is € 80.00 per night. If you are travelling abroad, a maximum of € 70.00 per night may be reimbursed for accommodation costs in Germany. A new list of daily and overnight allowances abroad is published every year, see here: Daily and Overnight Allowances Abroad [de]

Please submit a printout/screenshot from a booking portal which provides evidence of your search together with your travel request form. A list can only be acknowledged if no filters were used, with the exception of “within a radius of 5 kilometres” and “hotel”. Change the settings to “lowest price first” and print/take a screenshot of the accommodation in the list up to the hotel you booked. You do not have to include shared rooms and youth hostels.

You can combine your work-related travel with a private trip. If the private part of your trip takes up to 5 working days, the expenses necessary for the official business will be reimbursed. You must submit proof of the costs for the regular itinerary at the time of booking (printout train tickets, printout plane tickets). If you combine your business trip with a private proportion of more than 5 working days, only the additional part that is necessary for the official business will be reimbursed (no travel expenses for your outbound or homeward bound journeys).

You can use private railcards (BahnCards) for work-related travel. The costs will be reimbursed if their use for work-related travel in their period of validity has led to cheaper fares. You can claim the expenses by submitting a request (in no particular form) that indicates the cost centre and your bank account details. The request form has to be submitted together with the bill for the railcard (BahnCard) and a list of your business trips.