Mileage Reimbursement Policy

Mileage Reimbursement Policies and Procedures for Education

October 2018

Principles:

• Funds for our programs come largely from tithing dollars and thus need to be spent wisely and frugally so as to honor the sacredness of those funds.
• Faculty and staff should be fairly reimbursed for legitimate expenses they incur as part of their official duties at BYU-Idaho.
• We need to comply with IRS guidelines to be fully honest.

Policies and Procedures:

• Faculty and staff doing teaching observations are reimbursed at the full federal mileage rate for trips under 100 miles (for trips over 100 miles, it’s cheaper to check out a university vehicle so choosing to use a personal vehicle in such situations would be reimbursed at the half-rate as outlined by our general University travel policy).
• IRS guidelines indicate that you cannot be reimbursed for commuting miles from your home to your workplace.
• If you travel directly from your home to a school for an observation, you cannot be reimbursed for any mileage until you have traveled more than the distance from your home to BYU-I.
  
  • If an adjunct faculty member never really comes to campus/Rexburg, then their place of business is their home and s/he can claim mileage from their home to a school for supervision (for example, an adjunct employee who lives in I.F. and doesn’t come to Rexburg or BYU-I for their supervision sites). However, an adjunct faculty who lives outside of Rexburg who drives to the Rexburg area to do supervision is considered as commuting to Rexburg/BYUI and could not claim those miles but could claim miles between schools once in Rexburg.
• Whenever possible, we should double up on visits to observe students at the same or nearby schools to avoid multiple trips.
• Trips claimed for reimbursement should be limited to necessary trips rather than optional trips to visit a student.
• IRS guidelines indicate that you cannot be reimbursed for a trip whose primary purpose is something other than work-related. (For example, your primary purpose in going to Idaho Falls is to shop at Sam’s Club but you stop by for a school visit while you are there).
• Reimbursement requests will be periodically reviewed to ensure adherence to these policies and procedures.

Approved by ECC on 6/25/2020