Per diem in Germany is the flat meal allowance for business trips, and it sits at the heart of every German expense report: the list of everything a trip cost, so your employer can reimburse you or, if you are self-employed, your bookkeeping can record it. Five things go into the report: purpose and destination, dates with departure and return times, travel costs, the meal allowance, and every outlay with a receipt, such as hotel, train, parking or taxi. The German per diem rates come from tax law, where my business runs (as of November 2026): a meal allowance of 14 euros for more than eight hours away and for the arrival and departure day of a trip with an overnight stay, 28 euros for every full day of 24 hours away (section 9 (4a) of the Income Tax Act, EStG), and a flat 0.30 euros per kilometer driven in your own car. Hotels are claimed with a receipt; without one, an employer may reimburse 20 euros per night in Germany tax-free. The self-employed use the same meal allowances (section 4 (5) no. 5 EStG). The domestic rates are identical in the Ministry of Finance overviews for 2025 and 2026; trips abroad follow the country list of 5 December 2025. If you work in the US, other rules apply; see the IRS section below.
In my business, Peter, my AI employee for receipts, has matched the credit card statement line by line against the receipts since 19 August 2026. That matching is the receipt part of any expense report paid by company card. This is the legal position under the provisions cited and not tax advice for your case.
The expense report template to copy
Square brackets are placeholders: one line per travel day, one per receipt.
EXPENSE REPORT
Name [first and last name]
Period [DD.MM.YYYY to DD.MM.YYYY]
TRIP
Purpose [client, meeting, trade fair]
Destination [city, country for trips abroad]
Start [DD.MM.YYYY, HH:MM] from [home / regular workplace]
End [DD.MM.YYYY, HH:MM]
TRAVEL
Own car [total km] km x 0.30 EUR = [amount]
Train, flight, taxi per receipt no. [..] = [amount]
MEALS (one line per travel day)
[date] away [hours] allowance [14 / 28 EUR]
meal provided [breakfast / lunch / dinner]
reduction [5.60 / 11.20 EUR] = [amount]
LODGING
[hotel, city] per receipt no. [..] breakfast [yes / no] = [amount]
INCIDENTALS
[parking, luggage] per receipt no. [..] = [amount]
TOTAL = [amount]
of which paid by company card = [amount]
less advance = [amount]
PAYOUT = [amount]
[place, date] [signature] checked: [name, date]
Whatever ran through a company card appears in the report so the receipt has a purpose, but it is not paid out to you again.
A filled-in example
Suppose you drive your own car to a client, 180 kilometers each way, leaving at 7 a.m. on day one and returning at 6:30 p.m. on day two. The hotel is booked in the company's name and charges 89 euros with breakfast, without a separate breakfast price. Parking adds 12 euros.
The breakfast share of 5.60 euros is 20 percent of the full daily allowance of 28 euros. The Ministry of Finance's travel expense guidance (para. 118) reduces a total price by this share, because breakfast counts as meals, not lodging. If the company reimburses the full 89 euros instead, the meal allowance on day two drops to 8.40 euros. Both ways end at 231.40 euros.
Per diem in Germany: the 2026 rates at a glance
Two distinctions matter. Lodging flat rates apply only to employer reimbursement; on your own return and when self-employed, only the actual hotel cost counts. And the commuting allowance of 0.38 euros, from the first kilometer since 1 January 2026, covers the way to your regular workplace, not a business trip, which stays at 0.30 euros per kilometer driven.
Meal payments above the allowance are taxable wages; up to double the allowance the employer can tax them at a flat 25 percent (sec. 40 (2) sentence 1 no. 4 EStG). Tax-free reimbursements cannot be claimed again as work expenses (sec. 9 (4a) sentence 11 EStG).
Filing an expense report in five steps
- Record the trip. Date, departure and return time, destination, purpose. The times decide between 14 and 28 euros.
- Collect receipts. Up to 250 euros, a small-amount invoice is enough (sec. 33 UStDV). Phone apps for this are in Receipt Scanning Apps: The Best Tools.
- Calculate the allowances. Time away per day, minus meals provided, hotel breakfast out of the lodging price.
- Submit for checking. The employee provides documents showing the conditions are met; the employer keeps them with the payroll account (R 9.5 (2) LStR, H 9.6 LStH).
- Retain. The business that books the receipts keeps them for eight years, counted from the end of the calendar year the receipt was created (sec. 147 (3) and (4) of the Fiscal Code, AO). How to file so it holds up is in Digital Receipt Filing That Holds Up.
Deadlines: what the law says and what it does not
None of the German provisions cited here sets a deadline for submitting your report to your employer; if there is one, it comes from your contract, a collective agreement or your company's travel policy. The law sets two others: the three-month rule for meal allowances at one location and eight years of retention. The wider duties are in Bookkeeping Basics for the Self-Employed.
If you are in the US
Do not use the German rates above. The IRS framework is in Publication 463 (edition for 2025 returns, retrieved 4 November 2026). An employer's reimbursement counts as an accountable plan only if your expenses have a business connection, you adequately account for them within a reasonable period, and you return any excess within a reasonable period. Among the timings Publication 463 always treats as reasonable: accounting within 60 days after the expense, returning excess within 120 days. Reimbursements under an accountable plan are not reported as pay; under a nonaccountable plan they are. US mileage and per diem rates are not in this post; take them from the IRS.
Company card: matching instead of typing
With a company credit card, the payments are already on the statement, and the task becomes matching: every card line needs a receipt and a purpose. The meal allowance never appears on the card; it comes from the travel times. Ticking off the statement gives you clean receipted costs, not the allowances.
In my business, Peter does this matching. He works in my bookkeeping interface in the browser, uses the CSV export of the card statement as the basis, checks every receipt individually in full text and identifies it through two independent paths. In his first run he screened 116 receipts, matched them against two credit card statements and correctly matched 38 of 40, in just over an hour. He flagged the other two as open because the amount search returned several hits. He does not book entries; approval stays with me and my accountant. His page lists pre-sorting travel expenses as an example of what the same approach can also do. He does not do it today: further steps only become his once trained, tested and approved. The four software steps from receipt recognition to the gap list are in AI Bookkeeping: What Actually Works Today, the browser side in Claude in Chrome: How to Use the Extension.
Frequently asked questions
What are the German per diem rates for 2026?
In Germany, 14 euros for more than eight hours away and for the arrival and departure day with an overnight stay, 28 euros for every day with 24 hours away (sec. 9 (4a) EStG, as of November 2026). Trips abroad use the country rates from the Ministry of Finance letter of 5 December 2025.
Do I need receipts for the meal allowance?
No restaurant receipts; the allowance applies whatever you spend. You document the conditions, meaning travel days and times away, which the employer keeps with the payroll account.
How long do I have to keep expense receipts in Germany?
Eight years as accounting vouchers (sec. 147 (3) AO). The duty falls on the business that books them: employers and the self-employed. As an employee, you keep your copies as long as you need them for your own tax return. The period starts at the end of the calendar year the receipt was created. A receipt from March 2026 can go in early 2035 at the earliest, and only if no open tax assessment still needs it.
Can self-employed people claim expenses?
Yes, as business expenses: the same meal allowances as employees (sec. 4 (5) no. 5 EStG), lodging at actual cost. Software that handles this is compared in Accounting Software for Small Businesses.
How to continue
Copy the template and fill it in once for your last trip, with times; then you know which details you are missing. If you pay by company card, count last month's card lines without a receipt. That number is your baseline before you think about an AI employee for the matching.
There is no template for Peter's exact setup, but the learning path he grew out of is in my community AI Employee Framework. Bring your receipt workflow to the weekly live Q&A call; one question there saves you the first round of trial and error.
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