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Per diem calculator

by Zoho Expense
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Per diem calculator for USA

Our per diem calculator helps you figure out exactly how much you can spend on your business trip and set budgets, request advances, and manage bookings accordingly.

Calculate your travel per diem rate

About per diem

Per diem refers to daily allowances given to employees traveling for business. Per diem reimbursement rates in the USA are granted to federal employees by the government, but these rates are commonly followed to either set or calculate the per diem for most organizations. Per diem allowance rates include lodging, meals, and incidental expenses.

Lodging

This refers to the costs for your hotel or stay during the time of your business trip. The allowance is granted only if the expense is incurred. This means that employees must furnish an invoice for their stay and cannot be granted the allowance if they choose to stay with a friend or relative.

Meals

This expense includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner expenses incurred during the trip.

Incidental expenses

The Federal Travel Regulation Chapter 300, Part 300-3, defines incidental expenses as "Fees and tips given to porters, baggage carriers, hotel staff, and staff on ships."

Note: Meals and incidentals are commonly grouped together and referred to as M&IE rates.

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Per diem regulations established by the government

The per diem rates established by government agencies are fundamentally applicable to federal employees and are often adopted by most organizations. While many companies stick to the federal rates and keep it simple, organizations have the freedom to choose their own per diem rates. Although, it is important to note that the per diem allowance amount excess of those stated by the government is taxable. Per diem paid in excess of the federal stated allowances are treated as wages, and employment taxes are levied.

Per diem regulations in the USA are set by different agencies as per the travel destination

  • For the continental US region (also known as CONUS),the US General Services Administration, or US GSA, publishes per diem rates. These are usually revised and published every year on October 1.

  • For non-foreign US regions (also known as OCONUS), that include Alaska, Hawaii, and more, the US Department of Defense is responsible for publishing per diem rates.

  • For all foreign travel regions, the US Department of State is responsible for setting per diem rates.

  • As for the taxation limits, criteria, and beneficiaries, the Internal Revenue Service is the responsible agency and manages the same.

  • As these agencies evaluate and update the lodging, meals and incidentals (M&IE) rates for each region, they publish the same for the public to refer to here: https://www.travel.dod.mil/Travel-Transportation-Rates/Per-Diem/Per-Diem-Rate-Lookup/

Experience best in class per diem

Country-specific per diem

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Here's what our customers are saying about us

Puma has been using Zoho Expense in Oceania for over 3 years and our users have found the web interface and the phone apps to be feature rich and always improving.The look and feel is modern and pleasing to the eye. Puma has recently expanded the usage of Zoho Expense to multiple new regions around the globe, and throughout, the Zoho team has been extremely supportive to the unique requirements of each region and helped to make the onboarding experience painless.

Mark Hawkins

Director, Operations PUMA SEA

We started using Zoho Expense across our whole IFFCO group for Travel and Expense Management as one of the key aspects to keep control on spends. It was a challenge to manage employee spend and expense reporting across our multiple office locations with disparate solutions. We found Zoho Expense as a very powerful and flexible tool which allows us to accommodate many different expense policies and compliances in respect to many different countries' regulations.

Jaroslaw Pietraszko

Director ERP & Digital Transformation, IFFCO Group

The Zoho Expense team has provided us with the best features—especially the receipt auto-scan, which eases our expense reporting journey with its mobile functionality. Our employees use Zoho Expense and its features extensively, particularly the mobile app. Above all, with the Zoho Analytics integration, we always get the insights we need with multiple dashboards to analyze our business spend. We’re one of those happy customers who are looking forward to seeing many new features and integrations within the application.

Amit Rai

CHRO, Tata Play Fiber

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