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Duke University School of Law
Moot Court Board
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Reimbursement Policy
for Moot Court Competition Expenses |
CONTENTS
(click to jump directly to an item)
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The procedures and guidelines listed below are required by Duke
and conform to IRS regulations with respect to expense
reimbursements. Please respect them and address any questions to
Moot Court Board Treasurer, John Fred
or to Kate
Melcher (phone: (919) 613-7007).
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Ways
to pay for expenses (notice a common theme!):
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- Treasurer prepays; traveler brings back receipts
(usually
used for airfare and hotels).
- Traveler pays, brings back receipts, and gets reimbursed
(used mainly for meals, taxis & mileage).
- Traveler requests a "travel advance" and brings back receipts
(advances are available only if traveler is really unable to pay up front).
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General
guidelines for requesting reimbursement:
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- Save original receipts. Photocopies of receipts don’t cut it.
The only charge for which students may be reimbursed without a
receipt is car mileage.
- Attach
receipt(s) to a completed Moot
Court Reimbursement Form (available from the Resources
page of the Moot Court Board website and in John
Fred's mailfolder) and place in John’s mailfolder
within 10 days of returning from your trip. Please note that any receipts submitted after
10 days will not be reimbursed.
- Your
check will arrive in Kate Melcher’s office in about
three weeks. She will e-mail you to let you know when
it arrives.
- Reimbursement for
travel will not be given until the trip is completed.
If a travel advance is issued, it must be settled
within one week of completion of the trip. If not
cleared within thirty days from completion of the
trip, the uncleared amount on the Cash Advance Account
will remain on the student’s Bursar account until
cleared.
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PRE-COMPETITION
EXPENSES
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Copies
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All
copies should be made at the Law School, either using the
Moot Court copy code (which will be given to you by the
Treasurer) or through the copy center on-site.
The copy code is enabled on the copiers located on
the first and second floors in the copy rooms in the administrative
wing hallways. The
school copy center is located in the mailroom (next to
JD’s) and the contact person is Kelly, the mailroom
attendant. Fill
out a copy order form and place the carbon copy in
John’s mailfolder.
Turnaround times for the school copy center are
usually 24-48 hours, so plan ahead if it is a sizable copy
job.
Under
no circumstances should you use Kinko’s or any
retail copy centers. If you make your copies at one of these places, you
will not be reimbursed.
If for some reason you feel that it is necessary to
use a commercial copy center (e.g., there is a service you
need that is not provided at the school copy center),
request approval from the Treasurer before going
there. If the
treasurer approves the use of one of these locations, tell
them that it is a job for Duke and ask them not to charge
sales tax. |
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Postage
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Whenever possible, use the Post Office to mail your items,
as retail postal centers charge a sizable mark-up. Save
your original, itemized receipts and submit them for reimbursement using a
Reimbursement Form.
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COMPETITION
& TRAVEL
EXPENSES
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transportation, hotel, and meal expenses may be reimbursed.
Please read details below on the reimbursement process for
each of these.
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Transportation
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The requirements for travel reimbursement vary with the
mode of transportation:
- Air Travel -- In
most cases, your plane tickets will have been
purchased in advance by the Treasurer, so save your
boarding pass stubs and give them to the
treasurer when you return. If you purchase the ticket
yourself and wish to be reimbursed, an original
airfare passenger receipt is required.
If no paper ticket was issued, a boarding pass
stub is required, along with a printout of the
itinerary showing the ticket price.
Parking at the airport
will be reimbursed for up to two members of the
competition team (thus, team members should carpool
whenever possible). Remote parking (i.e., the
least expensive alternative) should be used. An
itemized receipt is required. Travel to and from
the airport will not be reimbursed.
- Mileage -- Make
a record of the actual mileage you drive for Moot
Court travel. Write that amount on a Reimbursement
Form and give it to the Treasurer. The current IRS rate
for reimbursing mileage is 34.5 cents per mile.
- Parking -- The
Moot Court Board will reimburse up to $10 a day for
out-of-town parking (this limit does not apply to
airport parking, discussed above).
If your parking is higher than this amount,
submit a brief explanation on the Reimbursement
Form
as to why it is so (e.g., you were staying in a
downtown hotel with no other parking available).
Choosing valet parking at a higher rate is not
an acceptable explanation.
- Taxis -- For
travel within a city, please try to take public
transit rather than hailing a cab.
A maximum of $15 per competition team per day
will be allowed for taxi expenses.
- Rental Cars -- You
must bring back an itemized receipt for the rental
car,
which shows a breakdown of all of the rental expenses.
Do not prepay gas, unless you will be driving
long distances for several days and honestly think you
will use an entire tank of gas. The cost of the Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) and Personal
Accident Insurance (PAI) coverage on rental cars will
be reimbursed.
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Hotels
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Moot Court Board will cover room and taxes, but no other
hotel charges. Whether or not your room has been prepaid
by the Treasurer, you must bring back a hotel folio
(itemized statement of each charge) stating a zero
balance. If you make Moot Court-related phone calls from
the room, you must pay for them yourself and request
reimbursement. Do
not under any circumstances use the hotel’s direct
long-distance!! Use
your own calling card or request a Moot Court
long-distance code from the Treasurer before leaving for
your trip. |
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Meals
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Overnight,
out-of-town meals may be reimbursed at the following rate:
Breakfast - $7.00; Lunch - $10.00; Dinner
- $15.00. A receipt is required for all meal
expenditures (note: the meal guideline is not a per
diem;
you will only be reimbursed the amount that you actually
spend). Itemized receipts are required rather than credit
card receipts. Travelers should select reasonably-priced
restaurants.
- Breakfast
-- Breakfast will be allowed
whenever the traveler is out of town the night before
or when the incurred travel begins earlier than a
normal breakfast.
- Lunch -- Lunch will
be reimbursed provided that the trip begins before the
lunch hour.
- Dinner -- Reimbursement for dinner will be made when the traveler is away from home for
the evening meal or does not return home until after
the normal dinner hour. Reimbursement for a meal
during a one-day business trip is not allowed without
pre-approval.
Gratuities of up to 20% may be
reimbursed. Expenditures for alcoholic beverages will
not be reimbursed.
If you are unsure as to whether a meal expense
is allowable, please discuss meal reimbursements with
the Treasurer.
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Miscellaneous
Un-Reimbursable Expenses
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The
Law School’s policy is to reimburse its travelers for
all reasonable and necessary expenses incurred while
transacting the affairs of the Law School. However, there are specific types of expenses
considered to be personal, and therefore not
reimbursable. The following list is illustrative, and does
not necessarily include all items considered to be
personal expenses:
- Cleaning,
pressing, and laundry (except when the trip exceeds
five days)
- Barber, manicurist, shoe shine, personal toiletries
- Personal telephone calls except to report changes in schedule
- Repairs on personal automobiles damaged while on Law School
business or general repairs and towing fees while on
Law School business
- Traffic violations and court costs (!)
- Loss or theft of personal property
- Movies, newspapers, books, snacks, spas, room mini-bars,
fitness centers
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