The Office of the Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Comptroller announces changes to the University of Illinois System’s policies and procedures for the purchase of business meals, refreshments, and alcohol.
These updates are effective immediately.
These enhancements are a direct result of feedback and guidance provided by business managers, academic fiscal officers, and university leadership, and were developed by assessing the current policy environment at our peer institutions
Improvements made to the policies and procedures include:
- Determining the allowability of expenditures based on a bona fide business purpose of the meeting/activity (how it benefited the University of Illinois System) as required by the Internal Revenue Service. Units may refer to University Payables job aid Providing a Detailed Business Purpose/Justification, IRS Publication 463, and policy 18.5 Fringe Benefits – Bona Fide Business Purpose for additional information.
- Replacing meal-specific spending limits with single amount of $75 per person per meal maximum expenditure for business meals, receptions, and refreshments. The amount limit applies to all providers, including restaurants, caterers, and University of Illinois System-operated food service, excluding allowable expenditures for tax, tips, and service charges.
- Reducing administrative burden related to providing supporting documentation by eliminating the requirement to provide names of attendees.
- Simplifying the category of attendees to either ‘employee’ or ‘non-employee.’ Student attendees should now be recorded based on their reason and capacity for attending the event.
The new policy and procedure has been published in section 8 Payments and Reimbursements of the Business and Financial Policies and Procedures Manual. You may view the addition at 8.1.1 Business Meals, Refreshments, and Alcohol. This new entry combines previous policies, ‘8.1.1 Determine the Allowability of Business Meals and Refreshments’ and ‘8.1.2 Determine the Allowability of Serving Alcohol at an Event’ into one policy subsection.
Contact
For questions about:
- Processing a expense report in TEM for expenses for the purchase of business meals, refreshments, and alcohol, contact University Payables (UPAY).
- Processing purchase orders for the purchase of business meals, refreshments, and alcohol contact your university Purchasing Division.
- The Business and Financial Policies and Procedures Manual, contact the CFO Business and Finance Policy Office at (312) 585-9049 or obfspolicies@uillinois.edu.
