B1 Visa & Taxes

[JSKP]

Hi, I am on a B1 visa in US for couple of months. I receive per diem allowance for my stay.

I have couple of questions -
1. I am expecting to have an unspent money of 800$-1000$ @ end of my stay. Let me know if I need to declare this as income & pay taxes when I go back to India.

2. I had to attend a funeral service of my aunt, spent around 500$ for internal flight & lodging to another state in US. Can I include them as bills when I submit the expenses report?

Thanks & Regards

[mickey_mouse]

Hi, I am on a B1 visa in US for couple of months. I receive per diem allowance for my stay.

I have couple of questions -
1. I am expecting to have an unspent money of 800$-1000$ @ end of my stay. Let me know if I need to declare this as income & pay taxes when I go back to India.

That actually depends on how your employer reports that money. If the per diem is included in the India equivalent of US' W2, then you will need to pay taxes on it, as it is part of your income. If they include 100% of the per diem on what their report as your income, you can deduct what you actually spent as a business expense.

So - it depends.

2. I had to attend a funeral service of my aunt, spent around 500$ for internal flight & lodging to another state in US. Can I include them as bills when I submit the expenses report?

Thanks & Regards

This is a mix between confusing an unethical.

Confusing because if your company is giving you a per diem, they don't expect you to submit an expense report - your hotel, meals, travel is covered by the per diem. You *may* submit an expense report, and be reimbursed, for extraordinary expense, but . . .

Let's look at your question from another point of view. Say your company sends you to the US for a two week training. During the weekend, you go to the movies. Would you expect for your company to reimburse the movie ticket, popcorn and soda ?

This is the same - you cannot expect any company to reimburse you for a personal expense - as both attending your aunt funeral or going to the movies would be. Doing it otherwise would be, as I said before, unethical. A bit surprised you even have to ask the question, to be honest.

[JSKP]

Thank you Sir for the prompt reply. I was not expecting reimbursement for the personal trip - will not request my Company to reimburse for my personal expenses. My Per-diem amount is good enough to cover the flight charges. My question was - whether I need to show these expenses in different category as they are not business related expenses.

As updated, I am going to have ~1000$ unspent money which I thought I could use to purchase some electronics here and based on the tax policy, I was planning to pay the tax (in India) that I might use to purchase electronics. As per your response - I thought - I should check with my Employer on how they report the per-diem.

Honestly - I am not trying to evade taxes, or request additional money, but trying to understand the per-diem on a B1 visit.

Thanks again for the response.

[raghvi]

Reimbursements for your expenses will be as per your company policies. As for per diem, in my opinion you should not have to worry about how company accounts for and files this per diem with the authorities. As long as they have paid it to you officially, what you do with the saved amount is your personal choice.

On a side note, there is an upper limit for the amount of dutiable goods/electronics for personal use that one can bring into India so plan accordingly. Sometimes the compatibility between US and India in terms of voltage, plugs etc as well as duty and customs at Indian airports are pain that it just doesnt make sense to buy electronics from outside and take them into India. You are allowed to take a personal laptop so read around. But all that has got nothing to do with a B1.

This is my opinion not a legal advice.

[JSKP]

Thank you Sir, appreciate your response. Yes, I heard about ~35000Rs upper limit when we bring electronics to India.

Reimbursements for your expenses will be as per your company policies. As for per diem, in my opinion you should not have to worry about how company accounts for and files this per diem with the authorities. As long as they have paid it to you officially, what you do with the saved amount is your personal choice.

On a side note, there is an upper limit for the amount of dutiable goods/electronics for personal use that one can bring into India so plan accordingly. Sometimes the compatibility between US and India in terms of voltage, plugs etc as well as duty and customs at Indian airports are pain that it just doesnt make sense to buy electronics from outside and take them into India. You are allowed to take a personal laptop so read around. But all that has got nothing to do with a B1.

This is my opinion not a legal advice.