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Travel days count as foreign working days

26th of september 2019 | Door:  Barry Scheer

If the Dutch tax authorities have to reduce the tax payable on salary due to the fact the employee has also worked abroad, travel days also count as working days abroad. 

A Dutch person was employed by a Dutch company (hereinafter: ‘BV’). In tax years 2011 to 2014, the employee worked in the territorial waters of French Guyana. Given the circumstances, France was allowed to  levy taxes on the salary for the employment activities in French Guyana.  

The Netherlands must therefore provide for the avoidance of double taxation. The amount of this prevention depends on the number of days the employee worked in French Guyana. The tax inspector only included half of the travel days in his calculation. However, the court noted that the BV paid the employee on travel days. On the travel days, the employee arrived in French Guyana or left French Guyana. The court ruled that this indicates that the employee also worked in French Guyana on those travel days. These travel days therefore fully count towards the calculation for the prevention of double taxation. 

Source: Taxence, 4 March 2019