Reimbursement rules and recommendations – MUSCATEN network, grant holder University of Tartu (UT)
Participants of the network, national and institutional team leaders in first order, are strongly recommended to read these carefully to make the cooperation pleasant and easy.

Financial legislation of Estonia is somewhat different of Finnish law and Nordic traditions in general. Therefore, reimbursement rules differ from NetFAM ones. 
Please be patient – these complicated rules are a result of different legislation and the new 30% self-funding rule for Baltic countries set by Nordic Council of Ministers.

Travel costs 
The strongly recommended way to refund the travel costs is following: first the Nordic or Baltic institution pays the travel costs to its employee and then this institution presents an invoice (please attach photocopies of original travel documents and bills) to UT for refund. This scheme is equivalent to the one recommended for arranging the workshops (see below). 
If payment through an institution is not possible, then it is recommended to pay all major travel costs, flight tickets in first order, by direct transfer by UT. We recommend the following procedure. The traveller sends us information on preferred flights. We book these flights, pay directly from the budget of network and then send tickets to the traveller. For large majority of flights in Nordic domain the e-tickets are available. Thus, entire procedure is very operative, as Estonian travel agencies completely trust UT and do not require pre-payment before issuing a ticket. The same scheme should work for boat/ferry trips on Baltic Sea and long-distance train connections. 

Per diem. We have no legal way to pay per diem to any foreign person (i.e. whose home institution is not in Estonia). The only option is through her/his home institution or host institution according to an invoice to UT (see above).

Also, we need information about upper level of tax-free per diem in the home country of traveller. As a rule, UT will pay Estonian regular per diem (500 EEK  32 EUR regardless of destination country), but not more that allowed in the home country of travelling person.
NB! In Estonia, it is not allowed to pay per diem to a student unless he/she has a job (incl. part-time). If in the country of home institution the universities are allowed to pay per diem to their students, that applies also to MUSCATEN reimbursements (required documentation as usual, see above). 
A recommendation. In case of a traveller from Latvia and Lithuania, it is recommended to cover by home institution in first order per diem to meet the 30% self-funding rule for Baltic countries, as documentation of other costs is much easier for both UT and home institution. 

Limitations to be kept in mind.  MUSCATEN cannot refund more than per diem 32 EUR per day. We recommend to keep accommodation costs below 128 EUR for one night in hotel. If cheaper accommodation is not available under reasonable conditions, then exceeding of this limit is acceptable, preliminary agreement with MUSCATEN project manager is needed. 
Please keep these limitations in mind, when sending your invoices to UT. However, all institutions are free to reimburse more to their employees from their own funds, if local rules allow that. 

Violating the rules above means a risk to pay the personal income tax to Estonian authorities – that is not allowed by NordForsk and thus, should be avoided at any circumstances. 

In case of workshops, training schools or similar events in a Nordic country, it is recommended to pay all relevant costs first by the local organising institution in the country where the event takes place. Then the local institution has to send an invoice to UT for all costs, clearly stating the rent of rooms, accommodation, other facilities, travel costs if paid by it etc. as separate issues for NordForsk financial reporting purposes. Also, please send the copies of all original documents (invoices, travel forms, tickets – may be scanned and sent electronically). This funding scheme makes the reimbursement faster and more secure. Expenses to host and accommodate the Baltic people can be fully reimbursed (“30% rule” not applied), if those are made in a Nordic country and paid by a Nordic institution! 

If it is possible to organise a visit from a Baltic to a Nordic country the same way – the (Nordic) host institution first pays all or most of the costs and then sends a bill to UT – then do that. Such a funding scheme is highly appreciated. 

To minimise the self-funding costs by Baltic institutions, the opposite way to the Nordic ones is recommended: Nordic participants at events in Baltic countries pay their costs themselves (or their institutions), afterwards refunded by the network.

In general, no costs of people from outside Nordic/Baltic domain can be reimbursed, neither direct nor indirect way. The only exception is made for invited speakers at workshops and training courses – all their costs may be reimbursed. NordForsk does not prescribe the procedure of inviting. It would be natural that the organising committee (agreed with project leader and manager) invites a speaker and marks his/her presentation in the programme as “invited talk” or equivalent.

However, most probably the rules and recommendations above do not cover all possible situations that can appear during the project. These will be solved when they appear and the guidelines will be updated with relevant information. 

For all practical arrangements (after the event or visit is agreed in principle), i.e. bills, tickets, per diem documentation etc., please contact Karin Tuvikene: karin.tuvikene@ut.ee, phone +372 737 5849. 

Marko Kaasik
06.11.2009, last updated 10.09.2012