Twin Cities Business Daily

What is a difference between car allowence and getting expenses?

What is a difference between car allowence and getting expenses? i am a sales person. i used to travel on trains/planes and my expenses were refunded monthly. in my new job i am gonna receive a car allowance - how is that related to my expenses when visiting clients? should that cover all my customer visits no matter how much i really spend visiting them?

Public Comments

1. Car allowance is given when you need to use your own or rented car related to your job. It varies a lot from company to company. I have been on different field job's with different companies. They all follow their own math. Expenses is what they actully pay you for all out of pocket expenses. (Lunch, snack, overnight stay etc......)
2. I would think that the expense re-imbursement would be better to cover all the costs of visiting and if nessecary, entertaining clients. With a car allowance, it is treated just like a salary, you are taxed on it and it gets posted on you w-2's as an earnings, where as I believe you don't have to pay taxes on re-imbursements. Not only that, a car allowance wouldn't nessecarily cover all the expenses you have.
3. Car/lease payment, gas, transportation costs.