The Rulings Directorate indicates that per diem or per kilometer “accommodation” allowances paid to long-haul drivers not in excess of their restaurant expenses were likely unreasonable

S. 6(1)(b)(vii) effectively excludes, from the employment income of a long-haul truck driver, a “reasonable allowance for travel expenses…for travelling away [from the home base]….” The Directorate was asked about “accommodation allowances” paid to such employees of $0.04 per kilometer. Although they slept in their cabs for security reasons, these allowances were reasonable in relation to the drivers’ meal costs, which were about $40 per day, whereas the per-kilometre allowance worked out to the equivalent of around $20 per day.

The Directorate started off on a promising footing, stating that “travel expenses include food, beverage and accommodation costs,” but then stated:

[A]n allowance for accommodation expenses calculated exclusively on the basis of distance, time or other criteria will not be considered reasonable if it does not represent an estimate of the cost of accommodation that may be incurred by the employee during the travel that generated entitlement to the allowance. …

[W]here an employee sleeps in the truck cab, it is unlikely that the allowances for accommodation expenses in the three scenarios provided will be considered reasonable for the purposes of paragraph 6(1)(b).

Would this response have been different if the trucking company instead had labelled the same amounts as “traveller meal allowances” - or if it had paid a per diem "accommodation" allowance of $20?

Neal Armstrong. Summary of 15 November 2016 Internal T.I. 2015-0577201I7 Tr under s. 6(1)(b)(vii).