For a business trip inside Germany in 2026, the official per diem (Verpflegungspauschale) is €28 for a full 24-hour day away and €14 for arrival and departure days — and for a day trip of more than 8 hours with no overnight stay. Driving your own car, the mileage rate (Kilometerpauschale) is €0.30 per kilometre. Hotel accommodation carries 7% VAT, which businesses can reclaim. Employees get these amounts tax-free from their employer or deduct what wasn't reimbursed in their tax return; freelancers deduct the same figures as business expenses. Rates: BMF / § 9 para. 4a EStG, unchanged for 2026.
Germany runs business travel on fixed official allowances rather than receipt-by-receipt meal claims — which makes the system predictable, if you know the numbers. This guide is the Germany chapter of our business-travel series; the companion piece, Business Travel Costs in Europe 2026, covers the per diem rates German-based travellers use for trips to the Netherlands, France, Spain and Italy, plus cross-border VAT refunds. If you are self-employed in Germany, read this alongside our German freelance tax guide for expats.
The 2026 per diem rates (Verpflegungspauschale)
| How long you are away | Per diem 2026 | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Full calendar day (24 hours away) | €28 | The middle days of a multi-day trip |
| Arrival or departure day (multi-day trip with overnight stay) | €14 | No minimum hours apply on these two days |
| Day trip, more than 8 hours, no overnight stay | €14 | The "small" allowance (kleine Pauschale) |
| Day trip of 8 hours or less | €0 | No per diem — actual travel costs still count |
The rates have been frozen at €28/€14 since 2021 and the BMF confirmed them unchanged for 2026; they are set in § 9 para. 4a of the Income Tax Act (EStG). No meal receipts are needed for the per diem itself — it replaces them. One limit catches long projects: the per diem is only available for the first three months at the same away-from-base work location (the Dreimonatsfrist); a break of at least four weeks restarts the clock. Travel and hotel costs stay deductible after three months — only the meal allowance stops.
Provided meals reduce the per diem
If a meal is provided for you — the classic case is breakfast included in a hotel your employer booked and paid — the day's per diem is cut by a fixed share of the €28 full-day rate:
| Meal provided | Reduction |
|---|---|
| Breakfast | 20% → −€5.60 |
| Lunch | 40% → −€11.20 |
| Dinner | 40% → −€11.20 |
| Full board | 100% → the day's per diem falls away |
The mechanics differ slightly for the self-employed: if you pay your own hotel bill, your per diem is not cut — instead, the breakfast is carved out of the deductible hotel cost. Either way, a "free" hotel breakfast is never quite free in the claim.
Everything else you can deduct
| Cost | 2026 treatment |
|---|---|
| Train, flight, taxi, rental car | Actual cost, with the ticket or invoice as proof |
| Your own car | €0.30/km driven (there and back); motorcycle/scooter €0.20/km — no fuel receipts needed |
| Hotel / accommodation | Actual cost against the invoice (no cap for the tax deduction). Employers may instead reimburse a flat €20/night when no invoice exists |
| Trip incidentals | Parking, tolls, luggage fees, business phone/internet charges — actual cost with receipts |
| Meals | Only via the per diem above — never the actual restaurant bills |
Keep the evidence that the trip happened and was for work: booking confirmations, conference badges, client meeting notes. The per diem needs no meal receipts, but the trip itself must be provable. Paying trip costs from a dedicated account keeps the paper trail clean — the accounts in our Germany banking guide all give you exportable statements for your records.
Open Wise Account → Open N26 Account →
Employees vs freelancers: same rates, different door
- Employees — your employer may reimburse up to the official rates tax-free (they are not obliged to pay the full amount). Whatever they don't reimburse, you deduct yourself as income-related expenses (Werbungskosten) in your tax return, Anlage N. You cannot claim the same euro twice.
- Freelancers and the self-employed (Selbständige) — the same per diem caps apply, claimed as business expenses (Betriebsausgaben) under § 4 para. 5 no. 5 EStG. Hotels are deducted at actual cost. The freelancer's extra win is VAT: the input tax on your train tickets, hotel and rental car comes back through your VAT return — see the next section.
- Employers and GmbHs — reimbursements above the official rates are taxable wages for the excess. The company reclaims the VAT on travel invoices addressed to the business.
Reclaiming the hotel VAT: the 7% rule
Accommodation in Germany is taxed at the reduced 7% VAT rate — but breakfast, minibar, parking and other extras are taxed at 19% and must be shown separately on the hotel invoice. Two rules decide whether the reclaim works:
- The invoice must be in the business's name (for employees: the employer's name, with the traveller noted). A hotel bill in a private name generally kills the company's input-VAT claim.
- Bundled prices get split. If a hotel sells one combined rate, a standard breakfast share (the €15 "business package" allowance commonly applied) is carved out at 19%; the rest of the room rate keeps 7%.
German VAT-registered businesses reclaim the tax in their normal VAT return. A business based in another EU country reclaims German VAT electronically through its home tax portal — for German businesses claiming foreign VAT, that is the BZSt online portal — with claims due by 30 September of the following year. Our European tax guide covers the wider expat tax picture.
🚗 Driving at the other end? Do the rental maths.
The €0.30/km mileage rate rewards short hops: a 100 km round trip "earns" €30 of claim. On a 1,000 km round trip the claim is €300 — often more than a rental car plus fuel for the same journey, with zero wear on your own car. This page contains an affiliate link: if you book through it we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Worked example: a 3-day client trip, Berlin → Munich
| Claim line | Calculation | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Mileage, own car | 1,170 km return × €0.30 | €351.00 |
| Per diem | €14 (arrival) + €28 (full day) + €14 (departure) | €56.00 |
| Hotel, 2 nights | €214.00 gross = €200.00 net + €14.00 VAT at 7% | €214.00 |
| Total trip cost claimed | €351 + €56 + €200 net hotel | €607.00 deduction |
| Plus VAT recovered | Input tax on the hotel invoice | €14.00 back |
The same trip as an employee with an employer who pays the hotel directly: you would claim the €351 mileage (if you drove) and €56 per diem — reduced by €5.60 for each hotel breakfast the employer covered.
How we compiled this
Rates are the official German figures for 2026: domestic per diem and mileage from the BMF's travel-expense rules under § 9 para. 4a EStG (confirmed unchanged for 2026 by multiple German payroll sources in October 2026), hotel VAT treatment under the reduced 7% accommodation rate, and the EU electronic VAT-refund procedure with its 30 September deadline. This page is educational content, not tax advice — business-travel claims are fact-specific, and a Steuerberater is the right check before a large or unusual claim. We did not accept payment for placement.
Business Travel in Germany FAQ 2026
€28 for a full 24-hour day away from home and your regular workplace, and €14 for arrival and departure days of a multi-day trip and for day trips longer than 8 hours. The rates are set by the BMF under § 9 para. 4a EStG and are unchanged for 2026.
No — employer reimbursements up to the official €28/€14 rates are tax-free. Anything an employer pays above the official rates counts as taxable wages. If your employer pays less or nothing, you deduct the shortfall in your own tax return instead.
Yes. Selbständige deduct the same €28/€14 amounts as business expenses (Betriebsausgaben). They deduct hotels at actual cost rather than any flat rate, and they also recover the VAT on travel invoices through their VAT return.
€0.30 per kilometre driven in your own car on a business trip, there and back, and €0.20/km by motorcycle or scooter. No fuel receipts are needed — keep a note of the trip, the route and the business reason.
Accommodation carries 7% VAT. Make sure the invoice is addressed to the business and shows breakfast separately (breakfast is 19%). German businesses reclaim in their VAT return; EU businesses based elsewhere claim German VAT electronically through their home-country portal by 30 September of the following year.
No meal receipts — the per diem replaces them. You do need evidence the trip happened and was work-related: tickets, booking confirmations, a conference programme or client correspondence. Keep hotel and transport invoices for those costs as normal.
The per diem is only payable for the first three months of work at the same away-from-base location. Travel fares and hotel costs remain deductible after that; only the meal allowance stops. An interruption of at least four weeks restarts the three months.
Claim the difference yourself. Employees deduct unreimbursed travel costs — including the gap between what the employer paid and the official per diem — as Werbungskosten in Anlage N of the German tax return.