Non-overnight Meal Payment Processing

Effective Date:	April 19, 2016
Function:	Payroll
Contact:	Kathy Shattuck

Basis for Procedure

This document describes how to process a payment for reimbursement of meal expense incurred during one-day, non-overnight travel.

Procedure Summary

Non-overnight meal payments are taxable to the employee and will be reflected in the employee’s gross income and reported on the employee’s Wage and Tax Statement (IRS form W-2). The Non-overnight Meal Payments section of the Travel Handbook should be reviewed prior to processing non-overnight meal payments to ensure compliance.

In addition to taxes being withheld, associated fringe benefits will be charged to the project/task/award number indicated on the Taxable Meal Payment Request & Authorization Form. Note: If a project/task/award number is not specified on the form, the payment and fringe will be charged to the current labor schedule.

Employees are eligible for non-overnight reimbursement when the travel is less than a full day and no lodging charges are incurred.

Compliance Review

RF employees must accurately complete the Taxable Meal Payment Request & Authorization Form within two weeks of the conclusion of a trip. Original receipts are not required but may be submitted with the form.

Operating location’s Human Resource or Payroll Office and Accounts Payable must review the form to ensure that:

The request has the appropriate approval signatures; and
is in compliance with the Travel Handbook; specifically,
- Non-Overnight Meal Payments, page 11 and
- Travel Schedule 2 - Maximum Amounts Allowed for Breakfast and Dinner, page 15.
Processing Payments in the Business System

After the compliance review is completed by the employee’s Human Resource or Payroll Office and Accounts Payable departments, the meal expense must be processed in the Oracle business system by the HR/PR staff in order to reimburse the employee and tax accordingly.

The steps taken to process the reimbursement in the business system are contingent upon the project/task/award being used for reimbursement:
If the payment is being made to the employee's current labor schedule (project/task/award), refer to How to enter a nonrecurring Earnings or Deductions Element in the HR module.
Note: Select the earnings element, MEALS NONOVERNIGHT DIRECT - NONRECURRING.
If the payment is not being made to the employee’s current Labor Schedule (project/task/award), refer to Enter or Update an Employee Labor Schedule and follow the steps on how to load an element level Labor Schedule for the Non-Overnight Meal reimbursement.

Definitions

Non-overnight Meal Payment- are taxable to the employee and will be reflected in the employee’s gross income and reported on the employee’s Wage and Tax Statement (IRS form W-2).

Related Information

Travel Handbook

Forms

Taxable Meal Payment Request & Authorization Form

Change History

Date	Summary of Change
April 19, 2016	Updated for clarity.
January 3, 2005	Conversion and revisions to document pa-a-36 from former payroll

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