travel time example

An official website of the United States government.

Here’s how you know

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• American Rescue Plan
• Coronavirus Resources
• Disability Resources
• Disaster Recovery Assistance
• Equal Employment Opportunity
• Guidance Search
• Health Plans and Benefits
• Registered Apprenticeship
• International Labor Issues
• Labor Relations
• Leave Benefits
• Major Laws of DOL
• Other Benefits
• Retirement Plans, Benefits and Savings
• Spanish-Language Resources
• Termination
• Unemployment Insurance
• Veterans Employment
• Whistleblower Protection
• Workers' Compensation
• Workplace Safety and Health
• Youth & Young Worker Employment
• Breaks and Meal Periods
• Continuation of Health Coverage - COBRA
• FMLA (Family and Medical Leave)
• Full-Time Employment
• Mental Health
• Office of the Secretary (OSEC)
• Administrative Review Board (ARB)
• Benefits Review Board (BRB)
• Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB)
• Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
• Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA)
• Employees' Compensation Appeals Board (ECAB)
• Employment and Training Administration (ETA)
• Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA)
• Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
• Office of Administrative Law Judges (OALJ)
• Office of Congressional & Intergovernmental Affairs (OCIA)
• Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP)
• Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP)
• Office of Inspector General (OIG)
• Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS)
• Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management (OASAM)
• Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy (OASP)
• Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO)
• Office of the Solicitor (SOL)
• Office of Workers' Compensation Programs (OWCP)
• Ombudsman for the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program (EEOMBD)
• Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC)
• Veterans' Employment and Training Service (VETS)
• Wage and Hour Division (WHD)
• Women's Bureau (WB)
• Agencies and Programs
• Meet the Secretary of Labor
• Leadership Team
• Budget, Performance and Planning
• Careers at DOL
• Privacy Program
• Recursos en Español
• News Releases
• Economic Data from the Department of Labor
• Email Newsletter

Travel Time

Time spent traveling during normal work hours is considered compensable work time. Time spent in home-to-work travel by an employee in an employer-provided vehicle, or in activities performed by an employee that are incidental to the use of the vehicle for commuting, generally is not "hours worked" and, therefore, does not have to be paid. This provision applies only if the travel is within the normal commuting area for the employer's business and the use of the vehicle is subject to an agreement between the employer and the employee or the employee's representative.

Webpages on this Topic

Handy Reference Guide to the Fair Labor Standards Act - Answers many questions about the FLSA and gives information about certain occupations that are exempt from the Act.

Coverage Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Fact Sheet - General information about who is covered by the FLSA.

Wage and Hour Division: District Office Locations - Addresses and phone numbers for Department of Labor district Wage and Hour Division offices.

State Labor Offices/State Laws - Links to state departments of labor contacts. Individual states' laws and regulations may vary greatly. Please consult your state department of labor for this information.

• Enroll & Pay
• Prospective Students
• Current Students
• Degree Programs

Fair Labor Standard Act (FLSA) & Travel Time

General rules.

A. Excluding normal commuting time, employees should be compensated for all travel unless:

• It is overnight; or
• No work is performed.

B. An employer may rearrange the work schedule within the workweek (Sunday – Saturday) to avoid additional compensation hours that may occur because of travel time or compensable commuting time as described below. Whenever possible, the employer and employee should discuss the possibility of rearranging the work schedule prior to departure.

Commute Time

Generally, an employee is not at work until he or she reaches the work site and begins working. A. If the employee is required to report to a meeting place where he or she is to pick up materials, equipment, or other employees, or to receive instructions before traveling to the work site, time is compensable only once the employee reaches the meeting place. If the employee drives a state vehicle, to and from work, he or she does not have to be compensated for that commuting time as long as:

• Driving the vehicle between home and work is strictly voluntary and not a condition of employment;
• The vehicle is a type normally used for commuting;
• The employee incurs no costs for driving the employer’s vehicle or parking it at home; and
• The work sites are within normal commuting area of the employer’s place of business.

Note: Unless there is a contract, custom or practice providing that an employee’s regular daily travel time between home and the workplace is compensable, such travel time is not compensable. If such a contract, custom or practice exists, the travel time is compensable.

Travel During the Workday

Travel as a part of the employee’s principal activity must be counted as hours worked. If the travel is for the benefit of the employer, it is compensable.

• Example: the employee travels from job site to job site during the workday.

B. If the employee runs an errand (i.e., stops at a business or at home) for his or her own convenience, the time traveling to/from that site that adds additional time is not compensable.

• Example: the employee leaves home for the work site but stops at a shop for his or her own convenience.

C. Time spent by the driver in picking up other passengers and transporting them to a specific location is work time and therefore compensable. The time the picked-up passengers spend traveling in the car is also compensable.

Out of Town Travel - Special One Day Assignment

A. If the employee is assigned to work in another city for one (1) day and the travel is performed for the employer’s benefit and at its request, it is part of the principal activity of the employee and therefore is compensable. This is true even if the employee is traveling by common carrier since this is a special assignment and is not ordinary home to work travel. The assignment is performed for the employer’s benefit and at the employer’s special request to meet the needs of the particular and unusual assignment. B. However, in this special one-day assignment, travel time between the employee’s home and the airport or railway station is considered commute time and, therefore, is compensable.

Overnight Travel

Travel that keeps an employee away from home overnight is travel away from home. Travel away from home is work time and is compensable. A. Travel time is compensable regardless of work schedule.

• Example: Employee drives to the airport to attend a seminar and has two co–workers as passengers with him/her. Whether the trip is made during normal workdays/workhours or non-normal workdays/workhours (i.e. Saturday or Sunday for an employee who works Monday through Friday) the travel time is compensable; all three employees are compensated.

B. Time spent at a motel with freedom to use time for the employee’s own purposes is not compensable.

C. Time Zone Changes – If the time zone changes during the travel day, the hours should be calculated based upon “actual” hours when calculating compensable time on travel days. A department may wish to use Central Standard Time (CST) for travel days to assist in determining work hours. Local time should be used for all other days of the travel.

• Example: Employee left Lawrence at 9:00 a.m. CST to travel to the airport and arrived at a hotel in Phoenix at Noon Pacific Standard Time (PST) (which is 2:00 CST). Actual hours of travel are 5 hours (9 am to 2:00 CST).
• Example: Employee left a hotel in San Francisco at 8 a.m. PST (which is 10:00 a.m. CST) to travel to the airport and board a return flight. Employee returns to Lawrence at 1:00 p.m. CST (11:00 p.m. PST). Actual hours of travel are 3 hours (10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. CST).

Additional Resources:

Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)

University Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Policy

A. When the travel takes place inside or outside the employee’s normal workdays or work hours; the employee is required to be compensated for the travel time to the airport or hotel, regardless of whether the employee is a driver or a passenger. B. The employee is compensated for all required conference events that require the employee to engage in training, attend a meeting, or listen to a speaker. The employee is not compensated for time at social events, meals without speakers or meals when work is not being performed. C. An employer, or the employee with prior approval of the employee’s supervisor, may rearrange the employee’s work schedule within the workweek to avoid additional compensation hours. D. If the time zone changes during the travel day, you will need to count “actual” hours. To determine work hours on travel days, use the Central Standard Time (CST) Zone for both days in order to avoid disadvantaging the employee due to time changes. For non-travel days, use local time.

Travel Example 1 – No Adjustments to Schedules

For this example, the conference began Sunday night at 5:15 pm with a business meeting and ended on Wednesday at Noon. The employee worked his/her normal schedule the days following the conference. No time zone differences.

Total compensation for the day is 8.25 hours (for hours 9:40 am to 6:00 pm).

Total compensation for the day is 8 hours (for hours 8:00 am to Noon and from 12:30 pm to 4:30 pm).

Total compensation for the day is 9.5 hours (for hours 8:30 am – 6:00 pm)

Thursday (back in the office)

Total compensation for the day is 8 hours (for hours 8 am to 5 pm).

Friday (Back in office)

Total compensation for the week is 49.75 hours (i.e., 40 hours at regular time and 9.75 hours at compensatory time earned at the time and a half rate, i.e., 9.75 x 1.5 = 14.25).

Travel Example 2 - Adjusted Work Schedule

For this example, the supervisor has informed the employee that any hours incurred that may result in extra compensation will be adjusted in the remaining workweek. The supervisor has determined the employee should leave early on Thursday and not work on Friday. The conference began Sunday night at 5:15 pm with a business meeting and ended on Wednesday at Noon. No time zone differences.

Total compensation for the day is 8 hours (for hours 8:30 am to 4:30 pm).

Thursday (Back in Office)

Total compensation for the day is 6.25 hours (for hours 8 am to 3:15 pm). No leave is reported.

Friday (No work performed)

Total compensation for the day is 0 hours .

Total compensation for the week is 40.00 hours.

Travel Example 3 – Time Zone Change

Sunday (travel day, so using cst)..

For this example, the employee’s workstation is in Lawrence, Kansas (CST) and the conference is located in Oakland, CA, which is in the PST time zone (i.e., 2 hours earlier). The conference began Sunday night at 5:15 pm (PST) with a business meeting and ended on Tuesday at Noon (PST).

Actual times shown are CST [PST is shown in brackets]

Total compensation for the day is 8.25 hours (for hours 9:40 am to 6:00 pm CST).

Actual times shown are PST as “local” time.

Tuesday (Travel day, so using CST)

Total compensation for the day is 9.5 hours (for hours 10:30 am – 8:00 pm CST).

Total compensation for the 3 days (Sunday, Monday and Tuesday) is 25.75 hours.

FLSA and Travel Time Guidelines for Overtime Eligible Employees (Effective: 05/21/2017)The University of Kansas, Human Resource Management, Carruth-O’Leary Hall, Room 103, 1246 West Campus Road, Lawrence, KS 66045, 785-864-4946 (voice), 785-864-5790 (fax), [email protected] (email).

• Get Started

Home >> #realtalk Blog >> Manage a team >> Travel Time Pay for …

Travel Time Pay for Hourly Employees (2024 Update)

By Andrea Nazarian

When it comes to travel time pay for hourly employees, things can get confusing for both employers and employees. If you run a business where your workers are paid by the hour but also have to travel for work, it’s important to understand what your obligations are and what your employees are legally entitled to.

Exempt employees don’t have to worry about this issue as much because they get a fixed amount of money in every paycheck, regardless of their travel time. However, for non-exempt employees, there are rules set by the government that say employers must pay them for the time they spend traveling.

In this post, we’ll go over everything you need to know about paying your hourly employees for travel time so your business can stay compliant.

What is Travel Time Pay?

Travel time pay refers to the money that employers are required to give their employees for the time they spend traveling to and from customer locations. It doesn’t include the regular travel from home to work.

In some emergency situations or when the employer asks the employee to do work-related tasks outside of their normal hours, the time spent commuting from home may be considered as paid time.

Travel Time Pay vs Break or Meal Time Pay

It’s important to note that travel time is different from break or meal time. According to the US Department of Labor, any break less than 20 minutes or longer breaks where the employee still has work duties must be paid.

If an employee is asked by their employer to travel during a full break or lunch period, that travel time is considered work-related and should be paid.

To avoid any confusion, it’s a good idea to have a separate policy in place that explains how lunch breaks and rest periods are handled in terms of pay.

Who is Entitled to Receive Travel Time Pay?

It’s important to understand that only certain employees, known as non-exempt employees, have the right to be paid for the time they spend traveling for work. This includes both hourly and salaried employees who fall into the non-exempt category.

On the other hand, there are employees called exempt employees who are not entitled to payment for work-related travel. In the United States, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) identifies different types of exempt employees, like executives, administrative staff, professionals, computer workers, and outside salespeople.

These exempt employees don’t get paid specifically for their travel time since they receive a fixed salary regardless of their travel obligations.

When Do You Have to Pay Hourly Employees for Travel Time?

Here are three common situations regarding paid work travel, but please note that these examples may not cover all possible scenarios.

Local Travel

If an employee’s job requires them to travel within their regular work hours, they must be paid for that time. This includes situations where they are engaged in work or waiting while traveling, even if it’s outside their normal work hours. However, employees who are on breaks or have enough time to do personal things are not eligible for payment during those periods.

Local Travel Example

Let’s say Rebecca is a personal assistant who drives her client, Steve, around town to run errands. If this travel is part of her job duties and occurs during her work hours, Sandra must be paid for that time.

Special One-day Assignment to Another City

If employees have to make a one-day trip to another city for work-related activities like conferences, classes, meetings, or similar events, you must pay them for the travel time to and from that city. However, you can deduct the time they would normally spend on their regular commute.

Some businesses choose to pay for the entire commuting time, but it’s not mandatory.

Special One-day Assignment to Another City Example

Let’s say Sheila works in your office and you send her to a conference. She travels from her home to the conference location and returns on the same day. The roundtrip takes her two and a half hours, while her regular daily commute is only 30 minutes.

In this case, you can deduct the 30-minute commute and pay her for two hours of travel time.

Overnight Travel

If a non-exempt employee travels away from home and stays overnight, you must count the hours they work on regular working days as well as work hours on non-working days (like weekends or holidays). However, you are not required to pay them for travel time that falls outside their regular work hours, unless they are working during that travel time (e.g., answering work emails or doing research on a work trip).

It’s important to note that these are general guidelines, and specific rules may vary depending on the location and applicable laws. You should familiarize themselves with the regulations in their jurisdiction to ensure compliance with travel time payment requirements.

How to Calculate Work Travel Time

One of the big challenges for business owners is figuring out how to calculate travel time pay accurately. It’s important to make sure that employees’ paychecks are fair and calculated correctly.

While you usually don’t have to pay for the time employees spend commuting between their homes and the workplace, other instances of work-related travel need to be accounted for. This includes adding the travel time to employees timesheets and paying them according to the law and company policies.

How Homebase Can Help Calculate Work Travel Time

Homebase is a time tracking tool that can make tracking travel time and managing employee hours much easier. It automatically tracks employees’ hours and locations while they’re on the move.

This means you can keep track of how much time your employees spend traveling for work. Homebase’s GPS time tracking feature lets you record drive time to different job locations.

GPS Time Tracking with Homebase

To make things even simpler, you can set up GPS Geofencing with Homebase. This allows for automatic tracking of when employees start and stop working based on their physical job location. With this feature, you’ll not only know how long it took employees to get to work sites but also precisely when they arrived and left.

Homebase also has features to streamline time tracking and invoicing. You can set different pay rates for travel hours and regular work hours, helping you streamline payroll . It also helps you handle overtime pay and helps you to plan employee routes and schedules to optimize travel time.

Travel Time Pay Rate Law by State

In some states, travel time pay rates must be the same as the rates for regular working hours, or they need to meet the minimum wage requirements at least. However, in other cases, travel rates might be calculated as a percentage of the employee’s normal pay rate.

In California, any travel time that exceeds an employee’s regular daily commute is considered compensable and must be paid at the agreed regular or overtime rates. Employers can set different rates for travel time, but they cannot be lower than the minimum wage.

In New York, the minimum wage regulations cover work-related travel. Employees must be paid for travel time if it is part of their job duties.

Oregon has different classifications for work travel time: portal-to-portal travel, travel between worksites, travel on special one-day assignments, and overnight travel. Generally, travel time pay is required for all types except for portal-to-portal travel (home-to-work and work-to-home).

In New Jersey, the Wage and Hour Laws ensure fair payment for travel time. When employees are required to travel between job locations as part of their work, they must be paid at the same rate as regular working hours.

In Maryland, paid travel time is defined similarly to federal regulations. It includes travel during regular working hours, travel between job locations, and home-to-work and back travel in emergency cases.

Nevada law states that any travel time considered as work should be paid at least at minimum wage rates. Additionally, any training requested by the employer must also be paid as it is considered work time.

Remember, these are general explanations, and specific regulations may vary. It’s essential for employers and employees to familiarize themselves with the specific laws in their state to ensure compliance with travel time pay requirements.

To make sure your business is following the rules, it’s important for them to understand the specific regulations about travel time pay in their area. Likewise, employees should be aware of their rights regarding travel time pay to ensure they receive fair compensation for the time they spend traveling for work.

A free time clock that frees up your time. 

Track hours. Prep for payroll. Control labor costs. All with our free time clock.

Try Homebase time clock

Travel Time Pay FAQs

How do you pay travel time for employees.

The method of paying travel time for employees depends on various factors, including the applicable laws and company policies. Here are a few common approaches:

Paying at Regular or Overtime Rates

In many cases, travel time is paid at the same rate as regular working hours. However, if employees exceed their normal work hours or if the travel time falls under overtime criteria, it should be compensated at the appropriate overtime rate.

Different Rates for Travel Time

Some employers choose to set specific rates for travel time, separate from regular working hours. These rates may be negotiated or agreed upon before the start of job execution, but they should not be lower than the minimum wage rates

Lump Sum or Flat Rate

In certain situations, employers may opt to provide a fixed amount as a lump sum or flat rate to cover travel time. This can simplify calculations and ensure consistent payments.

Travel time pay refers to the compensation that employees receive for the time spent traveling for work-related purposes. It encompasses the hours spent traveling to and from job sites, client locations, meetings, or other work-related destinations.

While travel time pay regulations can vary by jurisdiction, it typically applies to situations where employees are required to travel beyond their regular commute. The purpose of travel time pay is to ensure that employees are fairly compensated for the time and effort spent on work-related travel.

It’s important for employers to understand the specific laws and regulations in their jurisdiction to ensure compliance with travel time pay requirements.

How Do You Pay Travel Time for Hourly Employees?

Paying travel time for hourly employees involves considering various factors, such as the specific laws in your jurisdiction and your company’s policies. Here are some common practices:

Calculate Actual Hours

One approach is to track and pay hourly employees for the actual time spent traveling. This includes the time spent commuting between job sites or client locations. Employees should be compensated at their regular hourly rate for these travel hours.

Paying at Overtime Rates

If the travel time causes hourly employees to exceed their regular working hours or if it falls under overtime criteria based on applicable laws, it should be compensated at the appropriate overtime rate.

Set Flat Rates

Some employers choose to establish fixed flat rates for travel time. This means paying a predetermined amount for each trip or assignment, regardless of the actual hours traveled.

How Do You Pay Non-Exempt Employees for Travel Time?

Paying non-exempt employees for travel time requires careful consideration of legal requirements and company policies. Here are some common practices:

Compensate Actual Travel Hours

One approach is to track and pay non-exempt employees for the actual time they spend traveling. This includes the time spent commuting between job sites, client locations, or other work-related destinations. Employees should be compensated at their regular hourly rate for these travel hours.

Apply Overtime Rates

If the travel time causes non-exempt employees to exceed their regular working hours or qualifies for overtime based on applicable laws, it should be compensated at the appropriate overtime rate.

Establish Flat Rates or Lump Sum Payments

Employers may choose to establish fixed flat rates or provide lump sum payments for travel time. This involves paying a predetermined amount for each trip or assignment, regardless of the actual hours traveled. However, it’s important to ensure that these rates comply with legal requirements, such as meeting or exceeding minimum wage rates.

Do Employers Have To Pay Hourly Employees for Travel Time?

The requirement to pay hourly employees for travel time depends on various factors, including the specific laws in your jurisdiction and the nature of the travel. Here are some general guidelines:

Regular Commute

In most cases, employers are not obligated to pay hourly employees for their regular commute from home to the workplace and vice versa. This is considered ordinary home-to-work travel and is typically not considered compensable travel time.

Work-related Travel

However, when hourly employees are required to travel for work-related purposes, such as going to client locations or job sites, the travel time may need to be compensated. If the travel time exceeds the employee’s regular commute or falls under specific criteria outlined in labor laws, employers may be required to pay hourly employees for that travel time.

It’s important to note that travel time pay regulations can vary by jurisdiction, so it is advisable to consult the labor laws in your specific location and seek legal advice to ensure compliance.

Additionally, establishing clear travel time policies and communicating them effectively to employees can help avoid confusion and promote fair compensation practices.

Remember:  This is not legal advice. If you have questions about your particular situation, please consult a lawyer, CPA, or other appropriate professional advisor or agency.

Related posts

April 18, 2024

Brooklyn Tea: Brewing Up an Unstoppable Team with Homebase

From smudged schedules to a tea-rrific team. In the heart of Brooklyn, a small business is making a big impact…

April 11, 2024

Why Your Business Needs an Employee-First Culture

The competition to get and keep the right talent is fierce. Now businesses face a choice: stick with traditional management…

April 4, 2024

Team Management Made Simple with Homebase

Elements of a healthy and successful team Managing a team can seem like a game of whack-a-mole. When one problem…

Create an Effective Task List to Better Manage Your Small Business Team

As a small business owner, managing a team for the first time can be a daunting experience. It’s like being…

March 27, 2024

How to Make a Work Schedule

Let’s face it—scheduling can be stressful. And if you’re new to creating work schedules, it can be a bit complicated…

Unleash Your Team’s Potential with Time Tracking

As a small business owner, you know that every minute counts. Whether you’re running a bustling coffee shop or a…

Subscribe to our newsletter

Looking for ways to stay up to date on employment laws and small business news?

Homebase makes managing hourly work easier for over 100,000 local businesses. With free employee scheduling , time tracking , and team communication , managers and employees can spend less time on paperwork and more time on growing their business.

• Hiring & onboarding
• Team communication
• Employee happiness
• HR & compliance
• Integrations
• Food & beverage
• Beauty & wellness
• Medical & veterinary
• Home & repair
• Hospitality & leisure
• Education & caregiving
• Contact sales
• Become a Partner
• Careers – We’re hiring!
• #realtalk Blog

• Book a Speaker

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus convallis sem tellus, vitae egestas felis vestibule ut.

Error message details.

Reuse Permissions

Request permission to republish or redistribute SHRM content and materials.

Travel Policy Nonexempt Employees

The purpose of this policy is to outline pay rules that apply to nonexempt employees when traveling on company business.

Employees in positions classified as nonexempt (overtime eligible) under the Fair Labor Standards Act may be eligible for compensation for the time they spend traveling. The compensation an employee receives depends on the kind of travel and whether the travel time takes place within normal work hours.

"Normal work hours," for the purposes of this policy, are defined as an employee's regularly scheduled work hours (e.g., 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.). This definition applies to normal workdays (Monday through Friday) and to weekends (Saturday and Sunday). Employees with variable work hours will have their normal work hours defined by human resources prior to travel, based on a review of time records over the previous month.

  "Travel time" is defined according to the type of travel involved:

Travel for a one-day assignment in another city : An employee who regularly works at a fixed location and is given a special one-day assignment in another city and returns home the same day will be paid for the time spent traveling to and from the other city, except for the time the employee would normally spend commuting to and from the regular worksite.

Travel during the workday : Time spent by an employee traveling as part of his or her regular job duties, such as travel from jobsite to jobsite during the workday, is work time and will be paid as such.

Travel away from home : Travel that keeps an employee away from home overnight is travel away from home. Travel time that takes place within normal work hours, regardless of the day of the week, is treated as work hours. When an employee travels between time zones, the time zone associated with the point of departure should be used to determine whether the travel falls within normal work hours. Time spent traveling from home to an airport terminal or train station is considered commute time and is not treated as hours worked. Time spent waiting at a terminal until arrival at the destination is compensable when it falls during normal work hours.

Travel time as the driver of an automobile : All authorized travel time spent driving an automobile (as the driver, not as a passenger) is treated as work hours, regardless of whether the travel takes place within normal work hours or outside normal work hours.

If an employee requests a specific travel itinerary or mode of transportation that is different from the one authorized by the company, only the estimated travel time associated with the itinerary and mode of transportation that has been authorized will be eligible for compensation. For example, if an employee drives a car as a matter of personal preference when an authorized flight or other travel mode is available, and the travel time by car would exceed that of the authorized mode, only the estimated travel time associated with the authorized mode will be compensated.

Travel time as a  passenger  in an automobile is not automatically treated as work hours. Travel as a passenger in an automobile is treated the same as all other forms of travel.

Calculating and Reporting Travel Time

Employees are responsible for accurately tracking, calculating and reporting travel time on their time sheets in accordance with this policy.

Meal periods should be deducted from all travel time.

Related Content

Rising Demand for Workforce AI Skills Leads to Calls for Upskilling

As artificial intelligence technology continues to develop, the demand for workers with the ability to work alongside and manage AI systems will increase. This means that workers who are not able to adapt and learn these new skills will be left behind in the job market.

Employers Want New Grads with AI Experience, Knowledge

A vast majority of U.S. professionals say students entering the workforce should have experience using AI and be prepared to use it in the workplace, and they expect higher education to play a critical role in that preparation.

Advertisement

Artificial Intelligence in the Workplace

​An organization run by AI is not a futuristic concept. Such technology is already a part of many workplaces and will continue to shape the labor market and HR. Here's how employers and employees can successfully manage generative AI and other AI-powered systems.

HR Daily Newsletter

New, trends and analysis, as well as breaking news alerts, to help HR professionals do their jobs better each business day.

Success title

Success caption

A beginner's guide to time travel

Learn exactly how Einstein's theory of relativity works, and discover how there's nothing in science that says time travel is impossible.

Everyone can travel in time . You do it whether you want to or not, at a steady rate of one second per second. You may think there's no similarity to traveling in one of the three spatial dimensions at, say, one foot per second. But according to Einstein 's theory of relativity , we live in a four-dimensional continuum — space-time — in which space and time are interchangeable.

Einstein found that the faster you move through space, the slower you move through time — you age more slowly, in other words. One of the key ideas in relativity is that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light — about 186,000 miles per second (300,000 kilometers per second), or one light-year per year). But you can get very close to it. If a spaceship were to fly at 99% of the speed of light, you'd see it travel a light-year of distance in just over a year of time. 

That's obvious enough, but now comes the weird part. For astronauts onboard that spaceship, the journey would take a mere seven weeks. It's a consequence of relativity called time dilation , and in effect, it means the astronauts have jumped about 10 months into the future. 

Traveling at high speed isn't the only way to produce time dilation. Einstein showed that gravitational fields produce a similar effect — even the relatively weak field here on the surface of Earth . We don't notice it, because we spend all our lives here, but more than 12,400 miles (20,000 kilometers) higher up gravity is measurably weaker— and time passes more quickly, by about 45 microseconds per day. That's more significant than you might think, because it's the altitude at which GPS satellites orbit Earth, and their clocks need to be precisely synchronized with ground-based ones for the system to work properly. 

The satellites have to compensate for time dilation effects due both to their higher altitude and their faster speed. So whenever you use the GPS feature on your smartphone or your car's satnav, there's a tiny element of time travel involved. You and the satellites are traveling into the future at very slightly different rates.

But for more dramatic effects, we need to look at much stronger gravitational fields, such as those around black holes , which can distort space-time so much that it folds back on itself. The result is a so-called wormhole, a concept that's familiar from sci-fi movies, but actually originates in Einstein's theory of relativity. In effect, a wormhole is a shortcut from one point in space-time to another. You enter one black hole, and emerge from another one somewhere else. Unfortunately, it's not as practical a means of transport as Hollywood makes it look. That's because the black hole's gravity would tear you to pieces as you approached it, but it really is possible in theory. And because we're talking about space-time, not just space, the wormhole's exit could be at an earlier time than its entrance; that means you would end up in the past rather than the future.

Trajectories in space-time that loop back into the past are given the technical name "closed timelike curves." If you search through serious academic journals, you'll find plenty of references to them — far more than you'll find to "time travel." But in effect, that's exactly what closed timelike curves are all about — time travel

This article is brought to you by  How It Works .

How It Works is the action-packed magazine that's bursting with exciting information about the latest advances in science and technology, featuring everything you need to know about how the world around you — and the universe — works.

There's another way to produce a closed timelike curve that doesn't involve anything quite so exotic as a black hole or wormhole: You just need a simple rotating cylinder made of super-dense material. This so-called Tipler cylinder is the closest that real-world physics can get to an actual, genuine time machine. But it will likely never be built in the real world, so like a wormhole, it's more of an academic curiosity than a viable engineering design.

Yet as far-fetched as these things are in practical terms, there's no fundamental scientific reason — that we currently know of — that says they are impossible. That's a thought-provoking situation, because as the physicist Michio Kaku is fond of saying, "Everything not forbidden is compulsory" (borrowed from T.H. White's novel, "The Once And Future King"). He doesn't mean time travel has to happen everywhere all the time, but Kaku is suggesting that the universe is so vast it ought to happen somewhere at least occasionally. Maybe some super-advanced civilization in another galaxy knows how to build a working time machine, or perhaps closed timelike curves can even occur naturally under certain rare conditions.

This raises problems of a different kind — not in science or engineering, but in basic logic. If time travel is allowed by the laws of physics, then it's possible to envision a whole range of paradoxical scenarios . Some of these appear so illogical that it's difficult to imagine that they could ever occur. But if they can't, what's stopping them? 

Thoughts like these prompted Stephen Hawking , who was always skeptical about the idea of time travel into the past, to come up with his "chronology protection conjecture" — the notion that some as-yet-unknown law of physics prevents closed timelike curves from happening. But that conjecture is only an educated guess, and until it is supported by hard evidence, we can come to only one conclusion: Time travel is possible.

A party for time travelers 

Hawking was skeptical about the feasibility of time travel into the past, not because he had disproved it, but because he was bothered by the logical paradoxes it created. In his chronology protection conjecture, he surmised that physicists would eventually discover a flaw in the theory of closed timelike curves that made them impossible. 

In 2009, he came up with an amusing way to test this conjecture. Hawking held a champagne party (shown in his Discovery Channel program), but he only advertised it after it had happened. His reasoning was that, if time machines eventually become practical, someone in the future might read about the party and travel back to attend it. But no one did — Hawking sat through the whole evening on his own. This doesn't prove time travel is impossible, but it does suggest that it never becomes a commonplace occurrence here on Earth.

The arrow of time 

One of the distinctive things about time is that it has a direction — from past to future. A cup of hot coffee left at room temperature always cools down; it never heats up. Your cellphone loses battery charge when you use it; it never gains charge. These are examples of entropy , essentially a measure of the amount of "useless" as opposed to "useful" energy. The entropy of a closed system always increases, and it's the key factor determining the arrow of time.

It turns out that entropy is the only thing that makes a distinction between past and future. In other branches of physics, like relativity or quantum theory, time doesn't have a preferred direction. No one knows where time's arrow comes from. It may be that it only applies to large, complex systems, in which case subatomic particles may not experience the arrow of time.

Time travel paradox 

If it's possible to travel back into the past — even theoretically — it raises a number of brain-twisting paradoxes — such as the grandfather paradox — that even scientists and philosophers find extremely perplexing.

Killing Hitler

A time traveler might decide to go back and kill him in his infancy. If they succeeded, future history books wouldn't even mention Hitler — so what motivation would the time traveler have for going back in time and killing him?

Killing your grandfather

Instead of killing a young Hitler, you might, by accident, kill one of your own ancestors when they were very young. But then you would never be born, so you couldn't travel back in time to kill them, so you would be born after all, and so on … 

A closed loop

Suppose the plans for a time machine suddenly appear from thin air on your desk. You spend a few days building it, then use it to send the plans back to your earlier self. But where did those plans originate? Nowhere — they are just looping round and round in time.

Sign up for the Live Science daily newsletter now

Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox.

How It Works has a special formula for making learning fun by answering questions on science, space, history, technology, transport and the environment with engaging articles, in-depth special features, global science news, and topical interviews. With impressive cutaway illustrations that show how things function, and mindblowing photography of the planet’s most inspiring spectacles, How It Works represents the pinnacle of engaging, factual fun for a mainstream audience keen to keep up with the latest tech and the most impressive phenomena on the planet and beyond. Written and presented in a style that makes even the most complex subjects interesting and easy to understand, How It Works is enjoyed by readers of all ages.

Get fantastic offers by subscribing to the digital and/or print edition now. Subscribers get 13 issues per year!

See the explosive 'devil comet' get its tail ripped off by a solar storm days before its close approach to the sun

Global 'time signals' subtly shifted as the total solar eclipse reshaped Earth's upper atmosphere, new data shows

Packs of dog-shaped robots could one day roam the moon — if they can find their footing on Earth first

Most Popular

• 2 James Webb telescope confirms there is something seriously wrong with our understanding of the universe
• 3 NASA spacecraft snaps mysterious 'surfboard' orbiting the moon. What is it?
• 4 'Exceptional' prosthesis of gold, silver and wool helped 18th-century man live with cleft palate
• 5 AI pinpoints where psychosis originates in the brain
• 2 Scientists are one step closer to knowing the mass of ghostly neutrinos — possibly paving the way to new physics
• 3 50-foot 'king of the serpents' may have been the biggest snake to ever live
• 4 Giant, 82-foot lizard fish discovered on UK beach could be largest marine reptile ever found
• 5 NASA's downed Ingenuity helicopter has a 'last gift' for humanity — but we'll have to go to Mars to get it

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

• LISTEN & FOLLOW
• Apple Podcasts
• Google Podcasts
• Amazon Music
• Amazon Alexa

Your support helps make our show possible and unlocks access to our sponsor-free feed.

Paradox-Free Time Travel Is Theoretically Possible, Researchers Say

Matthew S. Schwartz

A dog dressed as Marty McFly from Back to the Future attends the Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade in 2015. New research says time travel might be possible without the problems McFly encountered. Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

A dog dressed as Marty McFly from Back to the Future attends the Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade in 2015. New research says time travel might be possible without the problems McFly encountered.

"The past is obdurate," Stephen King wrote in his book about a man who goes back in time to prevent the Kennedy assassination. "It doesn't want to be changed."

Turns out, King might have been on to something.

Countless science fiction tales have explored the paradox of what would happen if you went back in time and did something in the past that endangered the future. Perhaps one of the most famous pop culture examples is in Back to the Future , when Marty McFly goes back in time and accidentally stops his parents from meeting, putting his own existence in jeopardy.

But maybe McFly wasn't in much danger after all. According a new paper from researchers at the University of Queensland, even if time travel were possible, the paradox couldn't actually exist.

Researchers ran the numbers and determined that even if you made a change in the past, the timeline would essentially self-correct, ensuring that whatever happened to send you back in time would still happen.

"Say you traveled in time in an attempt to stop COVID-19's patient zero from being exposed to the virus," University of Queensland scientist Fabio Costa told the university's news service .

"However, if you stopped that individual from becoming infected, that would eliminate the motivation for you to go back and stop the pandemic in the first place," said Costa, who co-authored the paper with honors undergraduate student Germain Tobar.

"This is a paradox — an inconsistency that often leads people to think that time travel cannot occur in our universe."

A variation is known as the "grandfather paradox" — in which a time traveler kills their own grandfather, in the process preventing the time traveler's birth.

The logical paradox has given researchers a headache, in part because according to Einstein's theory of general relativity, "closed timelike curves" are possible, theoretically allowing an observer to travel back in time and interact with their past self — potentially endangering their own existence.

But these researchers say that such a paradox wouldn't necessarily exist, because events would adjust themselves.

Take the coronavirus patient zero example. "You might try and stop patient zero from becoming infected, but in doing so, you would catch the virus and become patient zero, or someone else would," Tobar told the university's news service.

In other words, a time traveler could make changes, but the original outcome would still find a way to happen — maybe not the same way it happened in the first timeline but close enough so that the time traveler would still exist and would still be motivated to go back in time.

"No matter what you did, the salient events would just recalibrate around you," Tobar said.

The paper, "Reversible dynamics with closed time-like curves and freedom of choice," was published last week in the peer-reviewed journal Classical and Quantum Gravity . The findings seem consistent with another time travel study published this summer in the peer-reviewed journal Physical Review Letters. That study found that changes made in the past won't drastically alter the future.

Bestselling science fiction author Blake Crouch, who has written extensively about time travel, said the new study seems to support what certain time travel tropes have posited all along.

"The universe is deterministic and attempts to alter Past Event X are destined to be the forces which bring Past Event X into being," Crouch told NPR via email. "So the future can affect the past. Or maybe time is just an illusion. But I guess it's cool that the math checks out."

• grandfather paradox
• time travel

Travel Time Calculator

Estimated travel time.

These average speeds are based on typical urban travel conditions. Your travel time may vary.

Add this Calculator to Your Site

Understanding Travel Time Calculator: A Comprehensive Guide

Travel planning is an integral part of our daily lives, whether it involves commuting to work, delivering goods, or planning a vacation. A critical aspect of this planning is estimating travel time. The Travel Time Calculator is an invaluable tool in this respect, offering detailed time estimations based on different modes of transportation.

Decoding the Travel Time Calculator

A travel time calculator is a dynamic tool designed to calculate estimated travel time considering various factors such as distance, mode of transport, speed, and possible stops. It takes the hassle out of travel planning by providing accurate time estimates, transforming the way we plan our journeys.

From Sundials to Digital Calculators: A Historical Overview

The idea of calculating time has its roots in antiquity, with traders and explorers estimating their travel times to strategize their journeys. The digitization of this concept came much later with the advent of the internet. Now, we have evolved from simplistic models that considered constant speeds to more sophisticated calculators accounting for variable speeds, different modes of transport, and additional factors that influence travel times.

Step-by-Step Guide: How to Use a Travel Time Calculator?

Using a travel time calculator is easy and intuitive. Here's a quick guide:

• Select your mode of transport: Options typically include walking, cycling, driving, or using public transport.
• Input the total distance to your destination.
• Click the "Calculate" button.
• The tool instantly provides an estimated travel time.

Example Calculations

Let's look at some example calculations using a travel time calculator:

• Walking: If the total distance to your destination is 5 kilometers and your walking speed is 5 km/h, your estimated travel time will be 1 hour.
• Cycling: If the total distance to your destination is 10 kilometers and your cycling speed is 15 km/h, your estimated travel time will be approximately 40 minutes.
• Driving: If the total distance to your destination is 60 kilometers and your average driving speed is 60 km/h, your estimated travel time will be 1 hour.

The Business Perspective: An Indispensable Tool

The travel time calculator has wide-ranging applications in the business world. Logistics companies use it to estimate delivery times, improving their service efficiency. Ride-hailing services utilize it to predict travel times, which are crucial for fare calculations. Travel and tourism businesses use it to design optimal itineraries. Thus, it's a vital tool for businesses requiring any form of travel planning.

Educational Implications: A Learning Tool

In education, travel time calculators can facilitate interactive learning. They serve as practical tools for teaching the concept of speed, distance, and time. Using these calculators, students can solve problems and apply their understanding in real-world contexts, thereby improving their mathematical and logical skills.

Applications in Daily Life

For the everyday user, the travel time calculator is a godsend. It enables efficient journey planning, helps manage time effectively, and reduces the uncertainty associated with travel times. In a time-crunched world, it makes life simpler and travel planning a breeze.

Limitations and Future Potential

While the travel time calculator is an excellent tool, it's not without limitations. The accuracy of travel times can be affected by variable factors such as traffic, weather conditions, and unforeseen delays. However, the future holds promise with advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning that could enable these calculators to consider these variables, providing even more accurate time estimations.

The travel time calculator, despite some limitations, continues to be invaluable for businesses, educational institutions, and individual users. Harness its potential to make your travel planning more efficient and hassle-free.

Do you believe in time travel? I’m a skeptic myself — but if these people’s stories about time travel are to be believed, then I am apparently wrong. Who knows? Maybe one day I’ll have to eat my words. In all honesty, that might not be so bad — because the tradeoff for being wrong in that case would be that time travel is real . That would be pretty rad if it were true.

Technically speaking time travel does exist right now — just not in the sci fi kind of way you’re probably thinking. According to a TED-Ed video by Colin Stuart, Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev actually traveled 0.02 seconds into his own future due to time dilation during the time he spent on the International Space Station. For the curious, Krikalev has spent a total of 803 days, nine hours, and 39 minutes in space over the course of his career.

That said, though, many are convinced that time dilation isn’t the only kind of time travel that’s possible; some folks do also believe in time travel as depicted by everything from H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine to Back to the Future . It’s difficult to find stories online that are actual accounts from real people — many of them are either urban legends ( hi there, Philadelphia Experiment ) or stories that center around people that I’ve been unable to verify actually exist — but if you dig hard enough, sincere accounts can be found.

Are the stories true? Are they false? Are they examples of people who believe with all their heart that they’re true, even if they might not actually be? You be the judge. These seven tales are all excellent yarns, at any rate.

The Moberly–Jourdain Incident

In 1901, two Englishwomen, Anne Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain , took a vacation to France. While they were there, they visited the Palace of Versailles (because, y’know, that’s what one does when one visits France ). And while they were at Versailles, they visited what’s known as the Petit Trianon — a little chateau on the palace grounds that Louis XVI gave to Marie Antoinette as a private space for her to hang out and do whatever it was that a teenaged queen did when she was relaxing back then.

But while they were there, they claimed, they saw some… odd occurrences. They said they spotted people wearing anachronistic clothing, heard mysterious voices, and saw buildings and other structures that were no longer present — and, indeed, hadn’t existed since the late 1700s. Finally, they said, they caught sight of Marie Antoinette herself , drawing in a sketchbook.

They claimed to have fallen into a “time slip” and been briefly transported back more than 100 years before being jolted back to the present by a tour guide.

Did they really travel back in time? Probably not; various explanations include everything from a folie a deux (basically a joint delusion) to a simple misinterpretation of what they actually saw. But for what it’s worth, in 1911 — roughly 10 years after what they said they had experienced occurred — the two women published a book about the whole thing under the names Elizabeth Morison and Frances Lamont simply called An Adventure. These days, it’s available as The Ghosts of Trianon ; check it out, if you like.

The Mystery Of John Titor

John Titor is perhaps the most famous person who claims he’s time traveled; trouble is, no one has heard from him for almost 17 years. Also, he claimed he came from the future.

The story is long and involved, but the short version is this: In a thread begun in the fall of 2000 about time travel paradoxes on the online forum the Time Travel Institute — now known as Curious Cosmos — a user responded to a comment about how a time machine could theoretically be built with the following message:

“Wow! Paul is right on the money. I was just about to give up hope on anyone knowing who Tipler or Kerr was on this worldline.

“By the way, #2 is the correct answer and the basics for time travel start at CERN in about a year and end in 2034 with the first ‘time machine’ built by GE. Too bad we can’t post pictures or I’d show it to you.”

The implication, of course, was that the user, who was going by the name TimeTravel_0, came from a point in the future during which such a machine had already been invented.

Over the course of many messages spanning from that first thread all the way through the early spring of 2001, the user, who became known as John Titor, told his story. He said that he had been sent back to 1975 in order to bring an IBM 5100 computer to his own time; he was just stopping in 2000 for a brief rest on his way back home. The computer, he said, was needed to debug “various legacy computer programs in 2036” in order to combat a known problem similar to Y2K called the Year 2038 Problem . (John didn’t refer to it as such, but he said that UNIX was going to have an issue in 2038 — which is what we thought was going to happen back when the calendar ticked over from 1999 to 2000.)

Opinions are divided on whether John Titor was real ; some folks think he was the only real example of time travel we’ve ever seen, while others think it’s one of the most enduring hoaxes we’ve ever seen. I fall on the side of hoax, but that’s just me.

Project Pegasus And The Chrononauts

In 2011, Andrew D. Basiago and William Stillings stepped forward, claiming that they were former “chrononauts” who had worked with an alleged DARPA program called Project Pegasus. Project Pegasus, they said, had been developed in the 1970s; in 1980, they were taking a “Mars training class” at a community college in California (the college presumably functioning as a cover for the alleged program) when they were picked to go to Mars. The mode of transport? Teleportation.

It gets better, too. Basiago and Stillings also said that the then- 19-year-old Barack Obama , whom they claimed was going by the name “Barry Soetero” at the time, was also one of the students chosen to go to Mars. They said the teleportation occurred via something called a “jump room.”

The White House has denied that Obama has ever been to Mars . “Only if you count watching Marvin the Martian,” Tommy Vietor, then the spokesman for the National Security Council, told Wired’s Danger Room in 2012.

Victor Goddard’s Airfield Time Slip

Like Anne Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain, senior Royal Air Force commander Sir Robert Victor Goddard — widely known as Victor Goddard — claimed to have experienced a time slip.

In 1935, Goddard flew over what had been the RAF station Drem in Scotland on his way from Edinburgh to Andover, England. The Drem station was no longer in use; after demobilization efforts following WWI, it had mostly been left to its own devices. And, indeed, that’s what Goddard said he saw as he flew over it: A largely abandoned airfield.

On his return trip, though, things got… weird. He followed the same route he had on the way there, but during the flight, he got waylaid by a storm. As he struggled to regain control of his plane, however, he spotted the Drem airfield through a break in the clouds — and when he got closer to it, the bad weather suddenly dissipated. But the airfield… wasn’t abandoned this time. It was busy, with several planes on the runway and mechanics scurrying about.

Within seconds, though, the storm reappeared, and Goddard had to fight to keep his plane aloft again. He made it home just fine, and went on to live another 50 years — but the incident stuck with him; indeed, in 1975, he wrote a book called Flight Towards Reality which included discussion of the whole thing.

Here’s the really weird bit: In 1939, the Drem airfield was brought back to life. Did Goddard see a peek into the airfield's future via a time slip back in 1935? Who knows.

Space Barbie

I’ll be honest: I’m not totally sure what to do with thisone — but I’ll present it to you here, and then you can decide for yourself what you think about it. Here it is:

Valeria Lukyanova has made a name for herself as a “human Barbie doll” (who also has kind of scary opinions about some things ) — but a 2012 short documentary for Vice’s My Life Online series also posits that she believes she’s a time traveling space alien whose purpose on Earth is to aid us in moving “from the role of the ‘human consumer’ to the role of ‘human demi-god.’”

What I can’t quite figure out is whether this whole time traveling space alien thing is, like a piece of performance art created specifically for this Vice doc, or whether it’s what she actually thinks. I don’t believe she’s referenced it in many (or maybe even any) other interviews she’s given; the items I’ve found discussing Lukyanova and time travel specifically all point back to this video.

But, well… do with it all as you will. That’s the documentary up there; give it a watch and see what you think.

The Hipster Time Traveler

In the early 2010s, a photograph depicting the 1941 reopening of the South Fork Bridge in Gold Bridge, British Columbia in Canada went viral for seemingly depicting a man that looked… just a bit too modern to have been photographed in 1941. He looks, in fact, like a time traveling hipster : Graphic t-shirt, textured sweater, sunglasses, the works. The photo hadn’t been manipulated; the original can be seen here . So what the heck was going on?

Well, Snopes has plenty of reasonable explanations for the man’s appearance; each item he’s wearing, for example, could very easily have been acquired in 1941. Others have also backed up those facts. But the bottom line is that it’s never been definitively debunked, so the idea that this photograph could depict a man from our time who had traveled back to 1941 persists. What do you think?

Father Ernetti’s Chronovisor

According to two at least two books — Catholic priest Father Francois Brune’s 2002 book Le nouveau mystère du Vatican (in English, The Vatican’s New Mystery ) and Peter Krassa’s 2000 book Father Ernetti's Chronovisor : The Creation and Disappearance of the World's First Time Machine — Father Pellegrino Ernetti, who was a Catholic priest like Brune, invented a machine called a “chronovisor” that allowed him to view the past. Ernetti was real; however, the existence of the machine, or even whether he actually claimed to have invented it, has never been proven. Alas, he died in 1994, so we can’t ask him, either. I mean, if we were ever able to find his chronovisor, maybe we could… but at that point, wouldn’t we already have the information we need?

(I’m extremely skeptical of this story, by the way, but both Brune’s and Krassa’s books swear up, down, left, and right that it’s true, so…you be the judge.)

Although I'm fairly certain that these accounts and stories are either misinterpreted information or straight-up falsehoods, they're still entertaining to read about; after all, if you had access to a time machine, wouldn't you at least want to take it for a spin? Here's hoping that one day, science takes the idea from theory to reality. It's a big ol' universe out there.

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

Letter of Recommendation

How I Became Obsessed With Accidental Time Travel

The web is awash with ordinary peoples’ stories of “time slips.” Their real magic is what they can tell us about our relationship to time.

By Lucie Elven

This year, I turned 30, a development that came with a breathless sense of dread at time’s passing. It wakes me up in the early mornings: Nocturnal terror breaks through the surface of sleep like a whale breaching for air. My ambition and fear kick in together until I get up, pour myself some water and look out the window at the squid-ink sky and the string of lights along my neighbors’ houses. I lie down again after finding firmer mental ground, dry land.

So when a guy that my friend was seeing evangelized about “time slips” — a genre of urban legend in which people claim that, while walking in particular places, they accidentally traveled back, and sometimes forward, in time — I was a ripe target. Curious and increasingly existential, I Googled these supposed time slips. I found a global community of believers building an archive of temporal dislocations from the present. These congregants gathered in corners of the internet to testify about how, in the right conditions, the dusting of alienation that settles over the world as we age can crystallize into collective fiction.

I was initially skeptical of the vague language that time-slip writers employed to convey experiences I already found dubious: too many uses of foggy words like “blunder” and “sporting”; detail lavished on varieties of hats encountered. But I was drawn in by their secretive tone — I sensed that sharing these anecdotes was compromising, even shameful (“People would laugh at you,” one poster wrote). Disapproval became attraction, and I returned to the message boards throughout the summer.

Here’s a classic that, like the best of these stories, was related secondhand on a paranormal blog: In a Liverpudlian street in 1996, an off-duty policeman named Frank was going to meet his wife, Carol, in a bookshop called Dillons when “suddenly, a small box van that looked like something out of the 1950s sped across his path, honking its horn as it narrowly missed him.” More disorienting still, Frank “saw that Dillons book store now had ‘Cripps’ over its entrance” and that there were stands of shoes and handbags in the window instead of new fiction. The only other person not wearing midcentury dress was a girl in a lime green sleeveless top. As Frank followed her into the old women’s wear boutique, “the interior of the building completely changed in a flash”; it was once again a bookshop.

I found a global community of believers building an archive of temporal dislocations from the present.

As with a spell of déjà vu, the experience was short-lived, and time was regained. According to the blogger’s detective-like report, Cripps “was later determined” to have been a business in the 1950s. In response to Frank’s slip, posters have told their own or related accounts they’ve heard from others: “This happened to my ex-boss, Glyn Jackson in London, England,” one begins. “Glyn’s story is Highly believable as Glyn is person who lacks imagination on such a scale that he could not put together a grade one story for English to save his life.” And on it goes.

I have never appreciated stories about the passage of time. I resent that I won’t ever get back the hours of my life that Richard Linklater stole with “Boyhood” — his two-and-three-quarter-hour film, shot over a 12-year period in which time is the force that overwhelms everything, not least the idea that our own actions drive our life stories. There’s a whole lot of unwelcome profundity there.

Time-slip anecdotes, though fashioned out of the ambient dread of living with the ticking clock, are childlike in their sense of wonder. They are light, playful and irrational, as frivolous and folky as a ghost story if it were narrated by the confused ghost instead of the people it haunts. One poster, as a girl, used to see a woman in a blue bathrobe in her room: “Her hair was long and messy, a reddish brown. I didn’t see her face because she was usually turned away. I used to mistake her for my mom.” Years later, grown up, the poster’s daughter slept in her former bedroom. “One day I realized ... I was wearing the same blue bathrobe,” the mother writes. Paranormal trappings aside, this story speaks to the feeling of whiplash brought on by time’s passing.

Slipping can be significant, as any Freudian will tell you, and these narratives are riddles whose answers might tell us about our relationship to time. I have begun considering the message boards on which they are exchanged to be narrow but important release valves, allowing posters to talk about the feelings that arise from being time-bound: depression, midlife crises, the dysmorphia of living in a human body. What ailed Miss Smith, whose car slid into a ditch after a cocktail party, and who witnessed “groups of Pictish warriors of the late seventh century, ca. 685 AD,” if not an understanding of her smallness in history’s vast expanse? Why did two academics, famous in the time-slip community for writing a book about spotting Marie Antoinette in the Versailles grounds, encounter trees that looked lifeless, “like wood worked in tapestry”? Perhaps in that instant, like the last queen of France’s Ancien Régime, they felt radically out of joint with their present moment.

If you suspend disbelief, you’ll find these threads constitute a philosophical inquiry about the place of the spirit in our physical beings. They debate the merits of subjectivity and objectivity and question the idea that time is a one-lane highway to death. These writers argue that our past and future can suffuse our present, unveiling an epic dimension of our quotidian existences in moments when we slip and, like Frank, feel eternity.

Lucie Elven is a writer whose first book of fiction, “The Weak Spot,” was published this year in the United States by Soft Skull Press and in Britain by Prototype.

Background photograph: George Marks/Getty Images

Explore The New York Times Magazine

A Playwright Reimagines America: In her new play, “Sally & Tom,” Suzan-Lori Parks brings exuberant provocation  to the gravest historical questions.

The New Mood Music: The Texan trio Khruangbin’s vibes  have spawned countless imitators, but their magic isn’t so easy to replicate.

Inside a Media-Fighting Law Firm: Tensions had been brewing for years inside Clare Locke, a top defamation law firm. Then came the biggest defamation case of them all : a case against Fox News.

Is Corporate America in Denial?: Despite Donald Trump’s populist promises , many bigwigs are keeping the faith that it couldn’t really happen here.

Larry David’s Rule Book: He’s a wild, monomaniacal jerk . He’s also our greatest interpreter of American manners since Emily Post.

Inside The National Enquirer : An ex-editor at the tabloid reveals the story of the notorious “catch and kill” campaign  that now stands at the heart of Donald Trump’s’s legal trial.

An official website of the United States government

Here's how you know

Official websites use .gov A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS A lock ( Lock A locked padlock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

• A–Z Index
• Operating Status

Resources For

• New / Prospective Employees
• Federal Employees
• HR Professionals

Compensatory Time Off for Travel - Questions & Answers to Fact Sheet

• Q1. What is compensatory time off for travel? View more A. Compensatory time off for travel is a separate form of compensatory time off that may be earned by an employee for time spent in a travel status away from the employee's official duty station when such time is not otherwise compensable.
• Q2. Are all employees covered by this provision? View more A. The compensatory time off provision applies to an "employee" as defined in 5 U.S.C. 5541(2) who is employed in an "Executive agency" as defined in 5 U.S.C. 105, without regard to whether the employee is exempt from or covered by the overtime pay provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, as amended. For example, this includes employees in senior-level (SL) and scientific or professional (ST) positions, but not members of the Senior Executive Service or Senior Foreign Service or Foreign Service officers. Effective April 27, 2008, prevailing rate (wage) employees are covered under the compensatory time off for travel provision. (See CPM 2008-04 .)
• Q3. Are intermittent employees eligible to earn compensatory time off for travel? View more A. No. Compensatory time off for travel may be used by an employee when the employee is granted time off from his or her scheduled tour of duty established for leave purposes. (See 5 CFR 550.1406(b).) Also see the definition of "scheduled tour of duty for leave purposes" in 5 CFR 550.1403. Employees who are on intermittent work schedules are not eligible to earn and use compensatory time off for travel because they do not have a scheduled tour of duty for leave purposes.
• Q4. What qualifies as travel for the purpose of this provision? View more A. To qualify for this purpose, travel must be officially authorized. In other words, travel must be for work purposes and must be approved by an authorized agency official or otherwise authorized under established agency policies. (Also see Q5.)
• Q5. May an employee earn compensatory time off when he or she travels in conjunction with the performance of union representational duties? View more A. No. The term "travel" is defined at 5 CFR 550.1403 to mean officially authorized travel—i.e., travel for work purposes approved by an authorized agency official or otherwise authorized under established agency policies. The definition specifically excludes time spent traveling in connection with union activities. The term "travel for work purposes" is intended to mean travel for agency-related work purposes. Thus, employees who travel in connection with union activities are not entitled to earn compensatory time off for travel because they are traveling for the benefit of the union, and not for agency-related work purposes.
• Q6. An employee receives compensatory time off for travel only for those hours spent in a travel status. What qualifies as time in a travel status? View more A. Travel status includes only the time actually spent traveling between the official duty station and a temporary duty station, or between two temporary duty stations, and the usual waiting time that precedes or interrupts such travel.
• Q7. Is travel in connection with a permanent change of station (PCS) creditable for compensatory time off for travel? View more A. Although PCS travel is officially authorized travel, it is not travel between an official duty station and a temporary duty station or between two temporary duty stations. Therefore, it is not considered time in a travel status for the purpose of earning compensatory time off for travel.
• Q8. What is meant by "usual waiting time"? View more A. Airline travelers generally are required to arrive at the airport at a designated pre-departure time (e.g., 1 or 2 hours before the scheduled departure, depending on whether the flight is domestic or international). Such waiting time at the airport is considered usual waiting time and is creditable time in a travel status. In addition, time spent at an intervening airport waiting for a connecting flight (e.g., 1 or 2 hours) also is creditable time in a travel status. In all cases, determinations regarding what is creditable as "usual waiting time" are within the sole and exclusive discretion of the employing agency.
• Q9. What if an employee experiences an "extended" waiting period? View more A. If an employee experiences an unusually long wait prior to his or her initial departure or between actual periods of travel during which the employee is free to rest, sleep, or otherwise use the time for his or her own purposes, the extended waiting time outside the employee's regular working hours is not creditable time in a travel status. An extended waiting period that occurs during an employee's regular working hours is compensable as part of the employee's regularly scheduled administrative workweek.
• Q10. Do meal periods count as time in a travel status? View more A. Meal periods during actual travel time or waiting time are not specifically excluded from creditable time in a travel status for the purpose of earning compensatory time off for travel. However, determinations regarding what is creditable as "usual waiting time" are within the sole and exclusive discretion of the employing agency.
• Q11. What happens once an employee reaches a temporary duty station? View more A. Time spent at a temporary duty station between arrival and departure is not creditable travel time for the purpose of earning compensatory time off for travel. Time in a travel status ends when the employee arrives at the temporary duty worksite or his or her lodging in the temporary duty station, wherever the employee arrives first. Time in a travel status resumes when an employee departs from the temporary duty worksite or his or her lodging in the temporary duty station, wherever the employee departs last.
• Q12. When is it appropriate for an agency to offset creditable time in a travel status by the amount of time the employee spends in normal commuting between home and work? View more A. If an employee travels directly between his or her home and a temporary duty station outside the limits of the employee's official duty station (e.g., driving to and from a 3-day conference), the agency must deduct the employee's normal home-to-work/work-to-home commuting time from the creditable travel time. The agency must also deduct an employee's normal commuting time from the creditable travel time if the employee is required—outside of regular working hours—to travel between home and a transportation terminal (e.g., an airport or train station) outside the limits of the employee's official duty station.
• Q13. What if an employee travels to a transportation terminal within the limits of his or her official duty station? View more A. An employee's time spent traveling outside of regular working hours to or from a transportation terminal within the limits of his or her official duty station is considered equivalent to commuting time and is not creditable time in a travel status for the purpose of earning compensatory time off for travel.
• Q14. What if an employee travels from a worksite to a transportation terminal? View more A. If an employee travels between a worksite and a transportation terminal, the travel time outside regular working hours is creditable as time in a travel status, and no commuting time offset applies. For example, after completing his or her workday, an employee may travel directly from the regular worksite to an airport to attend an out-of-town meeting the following morning. The travel time between the regular worksite and the airport is creditable as time in a travel status.
• Q15. What if an employee elects to travel at a time other than the time selected by the agency? View more A. When an employee travels at a time other than the time selected by the agency, the agency must determine the estimated amount of time in a travel status the employee would have had if the employee had traveled at the time selected by the agency. The agency must credit the employee with the lesser of (1) the estimated time in a travel status the employee would have had if the employee had traveled at the time selected by the agency, or (2) the employee's actual time in a travel status at a time other than that selected by the agency.
• Q16. How is an employee's travel time calculated for the purpose of earning compensatory time off for travel when the travel involves two or more time zones? View more A. When an employee's travel involves two or more time zones, the time zone from point of first departure must be used to determine how many hours the employee actually spent in a travel status for the purpose of accruing compensatory time off for travel. For example, if an employee travels from his official duty station in Washington, DC, to a temporary duty station in San Francisco, CA, the Washington, DC, time zone must be used to determine how many hours the employee spent in a travel status. However, on the return trip to Washington, DC, the time zone from San Francisco, CA, must be used to calculate how many hours the employee spent in a travel status.
• Q17. How is compensatory time off for travel earned and credited? View more A. Compensatory time off for travel is earned for qualifying time in a travel status. Agencies may authorize credit in increments of one-tenth of an hour (6 minutes) or one-quarter of an hour (15 minutes). Agencies must track and manage compensatory time off for travel separately from other forms of compensatory time off.
• Q18. Is there a limitation on the amount of compensatory time off for travel an employee may earn? View more A. No.
• Q19. How does an employee request credit for compensatory time off for travel? View more A. Agencies may establish procedures for requesting credit for compensatory time off for travel. An employee must comply with his or her agency's procedures for requesting credit of compensatory time off, and the employee must file a request for such credit within the time period established by the agency. An employee's request for credit of compensatory time off for travel may be denied if the request is not filed within the time period required by the agency.
• Q20. Is there a form employees must fill out for requests to earn or use compensatory time off for travel? View more A. There is not a Governmentwide form used for requests to earn or use compensatory time off for travel. However, an agency may choose to develop a form as part of its internal policies and procedures.
• Q21. How does an employee use accrued compensatory time off for travel? View more A. An employee must request permission from his or her supervisor to schedule the use of his or her accrued compensatory time off for travel in accordance with agency policies and procedures. Compensatory time off for travel may be used when the employee is granted time off from his or her scheduled tour of duty established for leave purposes. Employees must use accrued compensatory time off for travel in increments of one-tenth of an hour (6 minutes) or one-quarter of an hour (15 minutes).
• Q22. In what order should agencies charge compensatory time off for travel? View more A. Agencies must charge compensatory time off for travel in the chronological order in which it was earned, with compensatory time off for travel earned first being charged first.
• Q23. How long does an employee have to use accrued compensatory time off for travel? View more A. An employee must use his or her accrued compensatory time off for travel by the end of the 26th pay period after the pay period during which it was earned or the employee must forfeit such compensatory time off, except in certain circumstances. (See Q24 and Q25 for exceptions.)
• Q24. What if an employee is unable to use his or her accrued compensatory time off for travel because of uniformed service or an on-the-job injury with entitlement to injury compensation? View more A. Unused compensatory time off for travel will be held in abeyance for an employee who separates, or is placed in a leave without pay status, and later returns following (1) separation or leave without pay to perform service in the uniformed services (as defined in 38 U.S.C. 4303 and 5 CFR 353.102) and a return to service through the exercise of a reemployment right or (2) separation or leave without pay due to an on-the-job injury with entitlement to injury compensation under 5 U.S.C. chapter 81. The employee must use all of the compensatory time off for travel held in abeyance by the end of the 26th pay period following the pay period in which the employee returns to duty, or such compensatory time off for travel will be forfeited.
• Q25. What if an employee is unable to use his or her accrued compensatory time off for travel because of an exigency of the service beyond the employee's control? View more A. If an employee fails to use his or her accrued compensatory time off for travel before the end of the 26th pay period after the pay period during which it was earned due to an exigency of the service beyond the employee's control, the head of an agency, at his or her sole and exclusive discretion, may extend the time limit for up to an additional 26 pay periods.
• Q26. May unused compensatory time off for travel be restored if an employee does not use it by the end of the 26th pay period after the pay period during which it was earned? View more A. Except in certain circumstances (see Q24 and Q25), any compensatory time off for travel not used by the end of the 26th pay period after the pay period during which it was earned must be forfeited.
• Q27. What happens to an employee's unused compensatory time off for travel upon separation from Federal service? View more A. Except in certain circumstances (see Q24), an employee must forfeit all unused compensatory time off for travel upon separation from Federal service.
• Q28. May an employee receive a lump-sum payment for accrued compensatory time off for travel upon separation from an agency? View more A. No. The law prohibits payment for unused compensatory time off for travel under any circumstances.
• Q29. What happens to an employee's accrued compensatory time off for travel upon transfer to another agency? View more A. When an employee voluntarily transfers to another agency (including a promotion or change to lower grade action), the employee must forfeit all of his or her unused compensatory time off for travel.
• Q30. What happens to an employee's accrued compensatory time off for travel when the employee moves to a position that is not covered by the regulations in 5 CFR part 550, subpart N? View more A. When an employee moves to a position in an agency not covered by the compensatory time off for travel provisions (e.g., the United States Postal Service), the employee must forfeit all of his or her unused compensatory time off for travel. However, the gaining agency may use its own legal authority to give the employee credit for such compensatory time off.
• Q31. Is compensatory time off for travel considered in applying the premium pay and aggregate pay caps? View more A. No. Compensatory time off for travel may not be considered in applying the biweekly or annual premium pay limitations established under 5 U.S.C. 5547 or the aggregate limitation on pay established under 5 U.S.C. 5307.
• Q32. When are criminal investigators who receive availability pay precluded from earning compensatory time off for travel? View more A. Compensatory time off for travel is earned only for hours not otherwise compensable. The term "compensable" is defined at 5 CFR 550.1403 to include any hours of a type creditable under other compensation provisions, even if there are compensation caps limiting the payment of premium pay for those hours (e.g., the 25 percent cap on availability pay and the biweekly premium pay cap). For availability pay recipients, this means hours of travel are not creditable as time in a travel status for compensatory time off purposes if the hours are (1) compensated by basic pay, (2) regularly scheduled overtime hours creditable under 5 U.S.C. 5542, or (3) "unscheduled duty hours" as described in 5 CFR 550.182(a), (c), and (d).
• Q33. What constitutes "unscheduled duty hours" as described in 5 CFR 550.182(a), (c), and (d)? View more A. Under the availability pay regulations, unscheduled duty hours include (1) all irregular overtime hours—i.e., overtime work not scheduled in advance of the employee's administrative workweek, (2) the first 2 overtime hours on any day containing part of the employee's basic 40-hour workweek, without regard to whether the hours are unscheduled or regularly scheduled, and (3) any approved nonwork availability hours. However, special agents in the Diplomatic Security Service of the Department of State may count only hours actually worked as unscheduled duty hours.
• Q34. Why are criminal investigators who receive availability pay precluded from earning compensatory time off when they travel during unscheduled duty hours? View more A. The purpose of availability pay is to ensure the availability of criminal investigators (and certain similar law enforcement employees) for unscheduled duty in excess of a 40-hour workweek based on the needs of the employing agency. Availability pay compensates an employee for all unscheduled duty hours. Compensatory time off for travel is earned only for hours not otherwise compensable. Thus, availability pay recipients may not earn compensatory time off for travel during unscheduled duty hours because the employees are entitled to availability pay for those hours.

A. When an employee who receives availability pay is required to travel on a non-workday or on a regular workday (during hours that exceed the employee's basic 8-hour workday), and the travel does not meet one of the four criteria in 5 U.S.C. 5542(b)(2)(B) and 5 CFR 550.112(g)(2), the travel time is not compensable as overtime hours of work under regular overtime or availability pay. Thus, the employee may earn compensatory time off for such travel, subject to the exclusion specified in 5 CFR 550.1404(b)(2) and the requirements in 5 CFR 550.1404(c),(d), and (e).

Under the provisions in 5 U.S.C. 5542(b)(2)(B) and 5 CFR 550.112(g)(2), travel time is compensable as overtime hours of work if the travel is away from the employee's official duty station and—

(i) involves the performance of work while traveling, (ii) is incident to travel that involves the performance of work while traveling, (iii) is carried out under arduous conditions, or (iv) results from an event which could not be scheduled or controlled administratively.

The phrase "an event which could not be scheduled or controlled administratively" refers to the ability of an agency in the Executive Branch of the United States Government to control the scheduling of an event which necessitates an employee's travel. If the employing agency or another Executive Branch agency has any control over the scheduling of the event, including by means of approval of a contract for it, then the event is administratively controllable, and the travel to and from the event cannot be credited as overtime hours of work.

For example, an interagency conference sponsored by the Department of Justice would be considered a joint endeavor of the participating Executive Branch agencies and within their administrative control. Under these circumstances, the travel time outside an employee's regular working hours is not compensable as overtime hours of work under regular overtime or availability pay. Therefore, the employee may earn compensatory time off for such travel, subject to the exclusion specified in 5 CFR 550.1404(b)(2) and the requirements in 5 CFR 550.1404(c), (d), and (e).

• Q36. If an employee is required to travel on a Federal holiday (or an "in lieu of" holiday), is the employee entitled to receive compensatory time off for travel? View more A. Although most employees do not receive holiday premium pay for time spent traveling on a holiday (or an "in lieu of" holiday), an employee continues to be entitled to pay for the holiday in the same manner as if the travel were not required. Thus, an employee may not earn compensatory time off for travel during basic (non-overtime) holiday hours because the employee is entitled to his or her rate of basic pay for those hours. Compensatory time off for travel may be earned by an employee only for time spent in a travel status away from the employee's official duty station when such time is not otherwise compensable.
• Q37. If an employee's regularly scheduled tour of duty is Sunday through Thursday and the employee is required to travel on a Sunday during regular working hours, is the employee entitled to earn compensatory time off for travel? View more A. No. Compensatory time off for travel may be earned by an employee only for time spent in a travel status away from the employee's official duty station when such time is not otherwise compensable. Thus, an employee may not earn compensatory time off for travel for traveling on a workday during regular working hours because the employee is receiving his or her rate of basic pay for those hours.
• Q38. May an agency change an employee's work schedule for travel purposes? View more A. An agency may not adjust the regularly scheduled administrative workweek that normally applies to an employee (part-time or full-time) solely for the purpose of including planned travel time not otherwise considered compensable hours of work. However, an employee is entitled to earn compensatory time off for travel for time spent in a travel status when such time is not otherwise compensable.
• Q39. Is time spent traveling creditable as credit hours for an employee who is authorized to earn credit hours under an alternative work schedule? View more A. Credit hours are hours an employee elects to work, with supervisory approval, in excess of the employee's basic work requirement under a flexible work schedule. Under certain conditions, an agency may permit an employee to earn credit hours by performing productive and essential work while in a travel status. See OPM's fact sheet on credit hours  for the conditions that must be met. If those conditions are met and the employee does earn credit hours for travel, the time spent traveling would be compensable and the employee would not be eligible to earn compensatory time off for travel. If the conditions are not met, the employee would be eligible to earn compensatory time off for travel.
• Q40. May an agency restore an employee's forfeited "use-or-lose" annual leave because the employee elected to use earned compensatory time off for travel instead of using his or her excess annual leave? View more A. Section 6304(d) of title 5, United States Code, prescribes the conditions under which an employee's forfeited annual leave may be restored to an employee. (See fact sheet on restoration of annual leave .) There is no legal authority to restore an employee's forfeited annual leave because the employee elected to use earned compensatory time off for travel instead of using his or her excess annual leave.

A. No. Compensatory time off for travel may be earned by an employee only for time spent in a travel status away from the employee's official duty station when such time is not otherwise compensable. The term "compensable" is defined at 5 CFR 550.1403 to make clear what periods of time are "not otherwise compensable" and thus potentially creditable for the purpose of earning compensatory time off for travel. Time is considered compensable if the time is creditable as hours of work for the purpose of determining a specific pay entitlement (e.g., overtime pay for travel meeting one of the four criteria in 5 CFR 550.112(g)(2)) even when the time may not actually generate additional compensation because of applicable pay limitations (e.g., biweekly premium pay cap). The capped premium pay is considered complete compensation for all hours of work creditable under the premium pay provisions.

In other words, even though an employee may not receive overtime pay for all of his or her travel hours because of the biweekly premium pay cap, all of the travel time is still considered to be compensable under 5 CFR 550.112(g)(2). Under these circumstances, the employee has been compensated fully under the law for all of the travel hours and the employee may not earn compensatory time off for any portion of such travel not generating additional compensation because of the biweekly cap on premium pay.

• Q42. May an employee who receives administratively uncontrollable overtime (AUO) pay under 5 U.S.C. 5545(c)(2) earn compensatory time off for travel? View more A. If such employee's travel time is not compensable under 5 CFR 550.112(g) or 5 CFR 551.422, as applicable, and meets the requirements in 5 CFR part 550, subpart N, the employee is eligible to earn compensatory time off for travel for time spent in a travel status.
• Q43. If a part-time employee's regularly scheduled tour of duty is Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and the employee is required to travel on a Friday from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., is the employee entitled to earn compensatory time off for travel for those 2 hours? View more A. It depends. If the travel qualifies as compensable hours of work under 5 U.S.C. 5542(b)(2)(B) and 5 CFR 550.112(g)(2)—i.e., the travel involves or is incident to the performance of actual work, is carried out under arduous and unusual conditions, or results from an event which could not be scheduled or controlled administratively—the employee may not be credited with compensatory time off for travel hours. (Such travel time outside a part-time employee's scheduled tour of duty, but not in excess of 8 hours in a day or 40 hours in a week, would be non-overtime hours of work compensated at the employee's rate of basic pay.) If the travel time does not qualify as compensable hours of work and meets the other requirements in 5 CFR part 550, subpart N, the part-time employee would be entitled to earn compensatory time off for those 2 hours. We note travel time is always compensable hours of work if it falls within an employee's regularly scheduled administrative workweek. (See 5 U.S.C. 5542(b)(2)(A) and 5 CFR 550.112(g)(1).) For a part-time employee, the regularly scheduled administrative workweek is defined in 5 CFR 550.103 as the officially prescribed days and hours within an administrative workweek during which the employee was scheduled to work in advance of the workweek. An agency may not adjust the regularly scheduled administrative workweek normally applied to an employee (part-time or full-time) solely for the purpose of including planned travel time otherwise not considered compensable hours of work.
• Q44. Does an upgrade in travel accommodations impact an employee's entitlement to compensatory time off for travel? View more A. Allowing an employee to upgrade his or her travel accommodations (e.g., to business class) does not eliminate his or her eligibility to earn compensatory time off for travel.

• Travel Calculators
• Travel Time Calculator

Calculate the estimated travel time for your journey.

Estimated Travel Time:

An error occurred. Please check your inputs and try again.

The Travel Time Calculator is a practical tool designed to assist travelers in estimating the duration of their journeys based on distance and average speed. By inputting these key parameters, individuals can quickly determine the approximate time needed to reach their destination. This calculator streamlines travel planning and offers a convenient way to gauge travel time, enabling better time management and informed decision-making.

How to Use the Travel Time Calculator:

• Distance: Enter the distance of your journey in miles. This represents the total length you will be traveling.
• Average Speed: Input your anticipated average speed in miles per hour (mph). This value reflects how fast you expect to travel on average during your trip.
• Click the "Calculate" button to obtain the estimated travel time.

Real-Time Example:

Suppose you are planning a road trip from your hometown to a scenic destination located 300 miles away. Anticipating a leisurely driving pace, you estimate an average speed of 60 mph. Utilizing the Travel Time Calculator, you input these values and find that your estimated travel time is 5 hours. This example illustrates how the calculator efficiently assists in gauging travel time for informed journey planning.

Benefits of the Travel Time Calculator:

• Efficiency: The calculator provides swift and accurate estimates of travel time, aiding in efficient planning and scheduling.
• Time Management: Users can better allocate their time by gauging travel duration and adjusting plans accordingly.
• Decision-Making: Informed by the estimated travel time, travelers can make well-informed decisions about departure times and breaks.
• Convenience: The user-friendly interface simplifies the process of calculating travel time, making it accessible to a wide range of users.

Conclusion:

The Travel Time Calculator is a valuable tool for travelers seeking to optimize their journeys by estimating travel duration accurately. By inputting the distance and average speed, users can promptly access estimated travel times, promoting effective time management and enhancing overall travel experiences. This calculator exemplifies the practicality and convenience that travel tools can provide, contributing to more enjoyable and well-organized trips.

Note: If the tool does not work properly or the results are different than you expected, please help us improve it by providing details about the issue. Click here to contact us and report the problem.

• Trip Budget Calculator

• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Use

Copyright 2023 CalculatorCentral.com

CalculatorCentral sidebar Menu

• Age Difference Calculator
• Birth Age Calculator
• Life Expectancy Calculator
• Time Since Calculator
• Break-Even Point Calculator
• Employee Salary Calculator
• ROI Calculator
• Startup Costs Calculator
• Garden Bed Area Calculator
• Material Cost Estimator
• Sewing Fabric Yardage Calculator
• Woodworking Project Planner
• Carbon Footprint Calculator
• Energy Consumption Calculator
• Plastic Waste Reduction Calculator
• Water Usage Calculator
• Catering Quantity Calculator
• Event Space Capacity Calculator
• Guest List Calculator
• Party Budget Calculator
• Investment Returns Calculator
• Mortgage Payment Calculator
• Retirement Savings Calculator
• Savings Goal Calculator
• BMI Calculator
• Calorie Intake Calculator
• Daily Protein Intake Calculator
• Target Heart Rate Calculator
• Class Average Calculator
• College GPA Calculator
• College Savings Calculator
• Cumulative GPA Calculator
• Easy Grader for Teachers
• Exam Average Calculator
• Finals Calculator
• Final Grade Calculator
• Grade Percentage Calculator
• Grading Calculator
• High School GPA Calculator
• Middle School GPA Calculator
• Middle School GPA Calculator Without Credits
• Quiz Grade Calculator
• Semester GPA Calculator
• Student Loan Repayment Calculator
• Test Average Calculator
• Test Grade Calculator
• Tuition Cost Calculator
• Weighted Grade Calculator
• Water Intake Calculator
• Sleep Debt Calculator
• Daily Steps to Miles Converter
• Stress Level Calculator
• Flooring Calculator
• Wallpaper Estimator
• Roofing Material Calculator
• Paint Quantity Calculator
• Bill Total Calculator
• Discount Calculator
• Markup Calculator
• Percentage Calculator
• Percentage Contribution Calculator
• Percentage Difference Calculator
• Percentage Error Calculator
• Percentage Growth Calculator
• Tax Calculator
• Debt Payoff Calculator
• Budget Calculator
• Credit Card Interest Calculator
• Loan Amortization Calculator

Is Time Travel Possible?

We all travel in time! We travel one year in time between birthdays, for example. And we are all traveling in time at approximately the same speed: 1 second per second.

We typically experience time at one second per second. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA's space telescopes also give us a way to look back in time. Telescopes help us see stars and galaxies that are very far away . It takes a long time for the light from faraway galaxies to reach us. So, when we look into the sky with a telescope, we are seeing what those stars and galaxies looked like a very long time ago.

However, when we think of the phrase "time travel," we are usually thinking of traveling faster than 1 second per second. That kind of time travel sounds like something you'd only see in movies or science fiction books. Could it be real? Science says yes!

This image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows galaxies that are very far away as they existed a very long time ago. Credit: NASA, ESA and R. Thompson (Univ. Arizona)

How do we know that time travel is possible?

More than 100 years ago, a famous scientist named Albert Einstein came up with an idea about how time works. He called it relativity. This theory says that time and space are linked together. Einstein also said our universe has a speed limit: nothing can travel faster than the speed of light (186,000 miles per second).

Einstein's theory of relativity says that space and time are linked together. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

What does this mean for time travel? Well, according to this theory, the faster you travel, the slower you experience time. Scientists have done some experiments to show that this is true.

For example, there was an experiment that used two clocks set to the exact same time. One clock stayed on Earth, while the other flew in an airplane (going in the same direction Earth rotates).

After the airplane flew around the world, scientists compared the two clocks. The clock on the fast-moving airplane was slightly behind the clock on the ground. So, the clock on the airplane was traveling slightly slower in time than 1 second per second.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Can we use time travel in everyday life?

We can't use a time machine to travel hundreds of years into the past or future. That kind of time travel only happens in books and movies. But the math of time travel does affect the things we use every day.

For example, we use GPS satellites to help us figure out how to get to new places. (Check out our video about how GPS satellites work .) NASA scientists also use a high-accuracy version of GPS to keep track of where satellites are in space. But did you know that GPS relies on time-travel calculations to help you get around town?

GPS satellites orbit around Earth very quickly at about 8,700 miles (14,000 kilometers) per hour. This slows down GPS satellite clocks by a small fraction of a second (similar to the airplane example above).

GPS satellites orbit around Earth at about 8,700 miles (14,000 kilometers) per hour. Credit: GPS.gov

However, the satellites are also orbiting Earth about 12,550 miles (20,200 km) above the surface. This actually speeds up GPS satellite clocks by a slighter larger fraction of a second.

Here's how: Einstein's theory also says that gravity curves space and time, causing the passage of time to slow down. High up where the satellites orbit, Earth's gravity is much weaker. This causes the clocks on GPS satellites to run faster than clocks on the ground.

The combined result is that the clocks on GPS satellites experience time at a rate slightly faster than 1 second per second. Luckily, scientists can use math to correct these differences in time.

If scientists didn't correct the GPS clocks, there would be big problems. GPS satellites wouldn't be able to correctly calculate their position or yours. The errors would add up to a few miles each day, which is a big deal. GPS maps might think your home is nowhere near where it actually is!

In Summary:

Yes, time travel is indeed a real thing. But it's not quite what you've probably seen in the movies. Under certain conditions, it is possible to experience time passing at a different rate than 1 second per second. And there are important reasons why we need to understand this real-world form of time travel.

If you liked this, you may like:

Mindfulness

How time perspective affects travel, do you live in the past, present, or future.

Posted April 15, 2024 | Reviewed by Michelle Quirk

• What Is Mindfulness?
• Find a mindfulness-based counsellor
• Understanding your own time perspective can enhance your life experience.
• Our characteristic types are neither good nor bad, just different from one another.
• Children are present-oriented, while adults favor the future. Seniors tend to preserve the past.

As an enjoyable vacation winds down, some of us become impatient to get home and move on to the next thing. Maybe that’s you. But, instead, you might be someone who tries to preserve, or even expand, every remaining moment. In either case, you’ll attempt to lock these precious flashes into your memory bank with mental snapshots. But without any effort, and all too quickly, the present quickly fades into the past. How we experience time is relevant to travel. Understanding your own time perspective can enhance your experience.

Stanford University Professor Emeritus Phil Zimbardo, author of The Time Paradox , notes that we are all oriented to time in one of the following characteristic ways—past, present, or future. According to his profile, I am future-oriented. What might your style be? Let’s see.

Those of us in the future category are goal-driven, focused on the future consequences of our actions, and forward-looking in general. Then there are the present-hedonic folks, the pleasure seekers who enjoy things in real-time, with less concern about tomorrow. Folks who live in the present tend to be open to experiences they didn’t necessarily plan, and they don’t need to check it off their bucket list. If this style fits, you’re probably most content with the moment-to-moment flow of your travel.

Past-oriented people make up the remaining category. This might be you if you compare current experiences with memories of past events or situations. Past-oriented folks determine the value of travel, according to Zimbardo, by assigning a pleasure quotient to the comparison—better or worse and by how much? This style is more analytic and rational, and based less on emotional factors than is true for present-focused folks. Does this sound like you?

Our characteristic types are neither good nor bad—just different from one another. Future- and past-oriented travelers provide a logical, systematic understanding of where travel fits into human experience. These styles have great evolutionary value. Our distant ancestors, who chronicled the past and predicted the future, tended to be the shaman and storytellers of the tribe. Reviewing the past and predicting the future was critical to human survival.

Present-oriented people tend to have more fun in the moment, and every society needs this type of person to keep things from getting too serious. Savoring the present is an acquired skill and is worth the effort to cultivate! Also, by expanding the present-pleasant and then reviewing a trip in the past-positive, you can have both good feelings and pleasurable memories. Since, as Zimbardo’s research indicates, we have characteristic ways of perceiving time, maintaining a present focus may require some work—if this isn’t naturally how you see the world.

Zimbardo points to another dimension of time—one that is age-related. In general, children are present-oriented while adults favor the future. Seniors tend to preserve the past. As a future-focused senior, I'm aware of the need to put my foot on the brake and try to prolong the present—particularly the pleasing moments while vacationing. This takes some work.

Regardless of the type that best explains you, here are some strategies to expand your time orientation:

• If you’re naturally drawn to the past or future , notice these tendencies and gently nudge yourself toward the present moment. When you catch yourself reminiscing about the last time you were in Paris, as you sit at an outdoor café savoring your steaming latte and munching on a croissant, remind yourself that the people you see strolling by are there right now—not last time or next time. The weather is uniquely now, not needing a contrast with a warmer or sunnier last visit. The present can be pleasant without any backward reference—or simply less.
• Future- oriented travelers tend to spend their present moments imagining future trips, which makes sense in planning life but can steal from the here and now. Recently, on a river cruise through Austria, I was struck by how much conversation I overheard about planning the next trip. Busily sharing these thoughts with fellow travelers, these vacationers sat by a large picture window as the ship sailed into a new city—totally missing the present moment, unnoticed outside of the window.
• Again, if future is your natural mode, keep that in mind as you travel. Learn to prolong the only moment that truly exists—this one that you anticipated for months or maybe years. The first step involves gently guiding your awareness back to the present. Practicing meditation even a few minutes a day will make this process easier.

This article is based on a chapter from my book: Inward Traveler: 51 Ways to Explore the World Mindfully, 2018.

Stanford University professor emeritus, Phil Zimbardo, authored The Time Paradox, Free Press, N.Y., 2008.

Francine Toder, Ph.D. , is an emeritus faculty member of California State University, Sacramento and is a clinical psychologist retired from private practice.

• Find a Therapist
• Find a Treatment Center
• Find a Support Group
• International
• New Zealand
• South Africa
• Switzerland
• Asperger's
• Bipolar Disorder
• Chronic Pain
• Eating Disorders
• Passive Aggression
• Personality
• Goal Setting
• Positive Psychology
• Stopping Smoking
• Low Sexual Desire
• Relationships
• Child Development
• Therapy Center NEW
• Diagnosis Dictionary
• Types of Therapy

Understanding what emotional intelligence looks like and the steps needed to improve it could light a path to a more emotionally adept world.

• Coronavirus Disease 2019
• Affective Forecasting
• Neuroscience

All Mars Resources

Perseverance’s ‘Bunsen Peak’ Sample

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover captured this image of a sample cored from a rock called “Bunsen Peak” on March 11,…

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Reaches Gediz Vallis Channel (360 View)

360-degree panorama provided by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover. This view was captured at Gediz Vallis channel, a feature that formed…

Animation of Mars Helicopter Flight Test

This animation shows a simulation of the response of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter to the system identification, or “Sys-ID,” process.…

Rover, Helicopter Locations in Jezero Crater

This map shows the locations of NASA’ Perseverance rover (white star) and Ingenuity Mars Helicopter (cyan star) on Dec. 19,…

Sol 4132: Right Navigation Camera, Cylindrical Projection

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity took 31 images in Gale Crater using its mast-mounted Right Navigation Camera (Navcam) to create this…

Sol 4130: Right Navigation Camera, Cylindrical Projection

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity took 31 images in Gale Crater using its mast-mounted Right Navigation Camera (Navcam) to create this…

Sol 4128: Right Navigation Camera, Cylindrical Perspective

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity took 30 images in Gale Crater using its mast-mounted Right Navigation Camera (Navcam) to create this…

Sol 4128: Left Navigation Camera, Vertical Projection

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity took 30 images in Gale Crater using its mast-mounted Left Navigation Camera (Navcam) to create this…

Sol 4128: Left Navigation Camera, Cylindrical Perspective

Sol 4128: Left Navigation Camera, Cylindrical Projection

Sol 4128: Mast-Mounted Navigation Camera, Cylindrical Perspective

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity took 30 image pairs in Gale Crater using its mast-mounted Navigation Camera (Navcam) to create this…

Sol 4128: Right Navigation Camera, Cylindrical Projection

Sol 4125: Right Navigation Camera, Cylindrical Projection

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity took 52 images in Gale Crater using its mast-mounted Right Navigation Camera (Navcam) to create this…

Sol 4123: Right Navigation Camera, Cylindrical Projection

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity took 51 images in Gale Crater using its mast-mounted Right Navigation Camera (Navcam) to create this…

Sol 4118: Right Navigation Camera, Cylindrical Projection

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity took 49 images in Gale Crater using its mast-mounted Right Navigation Camera (Navcam) to create this…

More From Forbes

7 ways to travel more sustainably.

• Share to Facebook
• Share to Twitter
• Share to Linkedin

Sustainable travel can be fun, rewarding and not at all challenging

Sustainable travel is surging in popularity, but what does it mean? The vague term can refer to traveling in a way that’s conscientious of the environment and local communities, leaving less of an impact on a destination and perhaps even bettering the location in the process. Sustainable tourism, in many ways a reaction to overtourism, helps protect the planet, to ensure destinations are liveable and worth visiting for years to come. And while travel can certainly takes its toll, creating carbon emissions, waste and more, responsible tourism is an essential step in protecting the planet.

Sustainable Travel Tips

Responsible tourism helps the environment by limiting ecological impact, supporting indigenous wildlife, respecting cultural heritage, and not taking away from a destination as a visitor, be it removing a shell from a beach or littering on a hiking trail. Plenty of responsible travel itineraries are easily replicable, but many trips can be adapted to be more sustainable. There are so many ways, big and small, to travel more responsibly and sustainably. Here’s how to start:

1. TSA-Friendly Doesn’t Need To Be Earth Hostile

You can buy single use and tiny versions of pretty much every care product these days, but do you actually need to? Opt for refillable travel bottles to decant your normal products into, and you’ll always have TSA-friendly bottles of shampoo, lotion, whatever you need at the ready. If you prefer to travel without liquids, consider switching to bars of shampoo and conditioner toothpaste powder and other products, which are eco-friendly wherever you are.

Planning ahead can be a major factor in sustainable travel

2. Opt For Public Transit

Public transportation — buses, trains, light rail, etc. — is always more sustainable than a private ride. If possible, use public transit to get to and from your destination and learn your destination’s public transit system to navigate while you explore. Not only will you likely save money as well as lower your carbon footprint, you’ll get a taste of how locals live. If public transit isn’t an option, consider booking shared rides to the airport and excursions, or renting an electric or hybrid vehicle if driving solo is the only option.

Bitcoin Suddenly Braced For A 35 Trillion Halving Price Earthquake

New google play biometrics warning issued to all android users, apple watch series 9 hits all time low special offer price, 3. pack for low waste experiences.

A bit of planning ahead can save considerable landfill waste. Bringing a reusable coffee cup for morning coffee runs and reusable water bottle will hopefully cut down the amount of single-use items you purchase on the go. Other easy to pack items including a reusable travel utensil set, reusable straws and reusable earplugs can help avoid creating more waste on the road. If you’re someone who discards beach reads, consider switching to an e-reader. Pack tote bags to carry souvenirs or other items purchased on the road that won’t require disposable plastic bags.

4. Eat Conscientiously

Eating local is the best way for your diet to support local eco-systems. Not only does dining at independent, small businesses (e.g. not chains), support local business people, but can often have lower environmental impact than major franchised restaurants that ship ingredients and supplies across the country. Making lower impact choices, including eating mostly plant-based, when possible, can also make travel a bit greener. If you don’t have anything to do with leftovers, consider ordering with a bit more restriction so you aren’t creating an excess of food waste.

Local culinary experiences can be healthy, fulfilling and sustainable

5. Book A Sustainable Hotel

Staying at a property dedicated to sustainability can make a big impact, especially by showing the travel industry that this is a priority for hospitality. Hotels are offered various certifications to prove their sustainable status, which can be achieved as a remote eco-lodge or luxury property in a major city. Several hotels are seeking LEED certification , the Green Hotels Association has a collection of vendors who prioritize sustainability, and the Leading Hotels of the World has a sustainability collection of five star properties.

6. Buy Carbon Offsets

While we technically can’t undo the damage we cause to the environment, there are initiatives to at least mitigate it. Carbon offsets allow consumers to compensate for their carbon footprint by funding projects that reduce carbon dioxide pollution. CoolEffect.org can help you decide how much to give, based on trip itinerary and logistics. For example, to offset air travel, a roundtrip, 6-hour flight would add about 1.89 tons of CO2 per passenger, and $31.17 of carbon offsets would help mitigate that.

Some airlines offer the option to purchase carbon offsets alongside airfare

7. Slow Down Your Travel

Slow travel is a buzzword that’s emerged in the 2020s, when work and leisure travel aka bleisure have melded more than ever, and the concept of working and even socializing remotely is totally normalized. Rather than a quick jaunt back and forth, slow travel emphasizes taking your time with tourism, be it living in a rental property for a month and enjoying the sights on the weekends, going backpacking, biking or hiking for an extended off the grid period, or traveling via train instead of air. Slow tourism has been proven to have a positive environmental impact .

• Editorial Standards
• Reprints & Permissions

Preparing for the tidal wave of Canadian tax changes

2024 Canadian ESG Reporting Insights

Findings from the 2024 Global Digital Trust Insights

PwC Canada's Federal budget analysis

Canada’s Draft Sustainability Disclosure Standards

27th Annual Global CEO Survey—Canadian insights

2023 Canadian holiday outlook

Embracing the future of capital markets

Five opportunities facing Canadian government and public-sector organizations

How can Canadian family business founders and owners create the right outcomes

Managed Services

PwC Canada drives adoption of Generative AI with firmwide implementation of Copilot for Microsoft 365

Our purpose, vision and values

Inclusion and diversity

Apply today! Now hiring students and new graduates

We’re empowering women to thrive in tech

Why join our assurance practice?

Loading Results

No Match Found

2024 Federal Budget analysis

On April 16, 2024, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Chrystia Freeland, presented the government’s budget. The budget:

• increases the capital gains inclusion rate from 1/2 to 2/3, effective June 25, 2024 (up to $250,000 of annual gains for individuals will continue to benefit from the 1/2 inclusion rate)
• raises the lifetime capital gains exemption to $1.25 million and introduces a new 1/3 inclusion rate for up to $2 million of certain capital gains realized by entrepreneurs
• confirms previously announced alternative minimum tax proposals effective January 1, 2024, but softens the impact of these proposals on charitable donations
• provides design and implementation details for the clean electricity investment tax credit
• introduces accelerated capital cost allowance (CCA) for, and relief from interest deductibility limitations for debt incurred to fund the construction of, certain purpose-built rental housing
• provides immediate expensing for the cost of certain patents and computer equipment and software
• gives the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) additional information gathering powers

This Tax Insights discusses these and other tax initiatives proposed in the budget.

Tax measures

Capital gains inclusion rate.

• Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption

Canadian Entrepreneurs’ Incentive

• Alternative Minimum Tax

Employee Ownership Trust Tax Exemption

Volunteer firefighters tax credit and search and rescue volunteers tax credit, mineral exploration tax credit for flow-through share investors.

• Canada Child Benefit

Disability Supports Deduction

Charities and qualified donees.

• Home Buyers’ Plan

Qualified Investments for Registered Plans

Deduction for tradespeople’s travel expenses, indigenous child and family services settlement, clean electricity investment tax credit, ev supply chain investment tax credit, clean technology manufacturing investment tax credit.

• Accelerated Capital Cost Allowance

Interest Deductions and Purpose-Built Rental Housing

Taxing vacant lands to incentivize construction, confronting the financialization of housing, halal mortgages, non-compliance with information requests, synthetic equity arrangements, mutual fund corporations, canada carbon rebate for small business, avoidance of tax debts, reportable and notifiable transactions penalty, manipulation of bankrupt status.

• Scientific Research and Experimental Development

International

Crypto-asset reporting, withholding for non-resident service providers, international tax reform.

• Extending GST Relief to Student Residences

GST/HST on Face Masks and Face Shields

Previously announced, personal tax measures.

The budget proposes to increase the capital gains inclusion rate from 1/2 to:

• 2/3 for dispositions after June 24, 2024 for corporations and trusts, and
• 2/3 for the portion of capital gains realized after June 24, 2024 in excess of an annual $250,000 threshold for individuals

The $250,000 annual threshold would apply to capital gains realized by an individual, either directly or indirectly via a partnership or trust, net of:

• current year capital losses
• capital losses of other years applied to reduce current year capital gains, and
• capital gains in respect of which the Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption (LCGE), the proposed Employee Ownership Trust Exemption or the proposed Canadian Entrepreneurs’ Incentive is claimed

As a result, the following rates will apply to capital gains earned by individuals in excess of the $250,000 threshold who are subject to the top marginal income tax rate (i.e. on taxable income exceeding: $355,845 in Alberta, $252,752 in British Columbia, $1,103,478 in Newfoundland and Labrador, $500,000 in the Yukon and $246,752 in all other jurisdictions).

The budget also proposes to decrease the stock option deduction to 1/3 to align with the new capital gains inclusion rate.  Individuals would continue to benefit from a deduction of 1/2 of the taxable benefit up to a combined $250,000 for both employee stock options and capital gains.

The inclusion rate for net capital losses carried forward and applied against capital gains will be adjusted to reflect the inclusion rate of the capital gains being offset.   

Transitional rules will apply to taxation years that begin before June 25, 2024 and end after June 24, 2024 such that capital gains realized before June 25, 2024 would be subject to the 1/2 inclusion rate and capital gains realized after June 24, 2024 (net of any losses) would be subject to a 2/3 inclusion rate. The $250,000 threshold will not be prorated for individuals in 2024 and will apply only against capital gains incurred after June 24, 2024.

Additional details will be provided in the coming months.   

Earning capital gains through a Canadian-controlled private corporation (CCPC)

In most jurisdictions, the increase in the capital gains inclusion rate makes it less attractive for individuals to earn capital gains in excess of $250,000 through a CCPC instead of directly. The  Appendix shows the resulting income tax deferral (prepayment) and the tax cost for an individual who realizes capital gains in excess of $250,000 and pays tax at the top tax rate.

> Back to top

Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption (LCGE)

The budget proposes to increase the LCGE on eligible capital gains from $1,016,836 to $1,250,000 for dispositions that occur after June 24, 2024. The indexing of the LCGE to inflation will resume in 2026.

The budget introduces the Canadian Entrepreneurs’ Incentive, which will reduce the taxes on capital gains from the disposition of shares by eligible individuals which meet the following conditions:

• at the time of the sale the share was a share of a small business corporation owned directly by an individual
• used principally in an active business carried on primarily in Canada by the CCPC or a related corporation
• certain shares or debts of connected corporations, or
• a combination of these assets
• the individual was a founding investor and the individual held the share for a period of five years prior to the disposition
• at all times since the share subscription until the time immediately before the sale, the individual directly owned shares with a fair market value (FMV) of more than 10% of the FMV of all of the issued and outstanding shares of the corporation and shares entitling the individual to more than 10% of the votes
• throughout the five year period before the disposition the individual was actively engaged in a regular, continuous and substantial basis in the activities of the business
• the share does not represent a direct or indirect interest in a professional corporation, a corporation whose principal asset is the reputation or skill of one or more employees, or a corporation that carries on certain types of businesses including a business operating in the financial, insurance, real estate, food and accommodation, arts, recreation, or entertainment sector, or providing consulting or personal care services
• the share must have been obtained for fair market value consideration

The incentive would provide a capital gains inclusion rate of one half of the prevailing inclusion rate on up to $2 million in capital gains per individual during their lifetime. The $2 million limit will be phased in over 10 years by increments of $200,000 per year reaching $2 million by January 1, 2034.  

Applying the proposed 2/3 inclusion rate would result in an inclusion rate of 1/3 for qualifying dispositions.  This will apply in addition to the LCGE.

This measure would apply to dispositions that occur after December 31, 2024.

Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT)

The 2023 budget announced amendments to change the calculation of the AMT. Draft legislative proposals were released for consultation in the summer of 2023. (For more information, see our Tax Insights “ Proposed changes to the alternative minimum tax: How will it affect individuals and trusts ”.)

The budget proposes to revise the proposed charitable donation tax credit claim to allow individuals to claim 80% when calculating AMT (as opposed to the previously proposed 50%).

The budget also proposes additional amendments to the AMT proposals including:

• allowing deductions for the Guaranteed Income Supplement, social assistance and workers compensation payments
• fully exempting employee ownership trusts (EOTs) from the AMT, and
• allowing certain disallowed credits under the AMT to be eligible for the AMT carry-forward (i.e. the federal political contribution tax credit, investment tax credits (ITCs), and labour-sponsored funds tax credit)

The amendments would apply to taxation years that begin after December 31, 2023.

The budget also proposes certain technical amendments to the AMT legislative proposals to exempt certain trusts for the benefit of Indigenous groups.

The 2023 budget proposed tax rules to create EOTs. The 2023 Fall Economic Statement proposed to exempt $10 million of capital gains on the sale of a business to an EOT subject to certain conditions.

The budget introduces the conditions for this exemption. The exemption will be available to an individual (other than a trust) on the sale of a business to an EOT where the following conditions are met:

• the individual, a personal trust of which the individual is a beneficiary, or a partnership in which the individual is a member, disposes of shares of a corporation that is not a professional corporation
• the transaction is a qualifying business transfer (as defined in the proposed rules for EOTs) in which the trust acquiring the shares is not already an EOT or a similar trust with employee beneficiaries
• throughout the 24 months immediately prior to the qualifying business transfer, the transferred shares were exclusively owned by the individual claiming the exemption, a related person, or a partnership in which the individual is a member; and over 50% of the FMV of the corporation’s assets were used principally in an active business
• at any time prior to the qualifying business transfer, the individual (or their spouse or common-law partner) has been actively engaged in the qualifying business on a regular and continuous basis for a minimum period of 24 months
• immediately after the qualifying business transfer, at least 90% of the beneficiaries of the EOT are resident in Canada

Where multiple individuals dispose of shares to an EOT as part of a qualifying transfer and meet the conditions above, they may each claim an exemption, however the total exemption in respect of the sale cannot exceed $10 million. The individuals would have to agree on the allocation of the exemption.

If an EOT has a disqualifying event within 36 months of the transfer, the exemption claim will be retroactively denied. If this occurs more than 36 months after a transfer the EOT will be deemed to realize a capital gain equal to the total exempt capital gains. A disqualifying event would result where an EOT loses its status as an EOT or if less than 50% of the FMV of the qualifying business shares is attributable to assets used principally in an active business at the beginning of two consecutive years of the corporation.

The EOT, any corporation owned by the EOT that acquired the transferred shares, and the individual will need to elect to be jointly and severally, or solitarily liable for any tax payable by the individual as a result of an exemption being denied due to a disqualifying event occurring during the first 36 months.  

For the purposes of the AMT calculation the capital gain on the transfer would be subject to an inclusion rate of 30% (consistent with the inclusion rate for capital gains eligible for the LCGE).            

An individual’s normal reassessment period as it relates to this exemption is proposed to be extended by an additional three years.

The budget also proposes to expand qualifying business transfers to include the sale of shares to a workers cooperative corporation, provided it meets certain conditions.

These measures will apply to qualifying dispositions of shares that occur between January 1, 2024 through December 31, 2026.

The budget proposes to double the volunteer firefighters tax credit and the search and rescue volunteers tax credit to $6,000 for the 2024 and subsequent taxation years; this increases the maximum annual tax savings to $900.

The budget proposes to extend the eligibility for this credit for an additional year, so that it will apply to flow-through share agreements entered into before April 1, 2025.

Canada Child Benefit (CCB)

A CCB recipient is no longer eligible to claim the CCB in respect of a child in the month following the child’s death. The budget proposes to extend eligibility for the CCB to six months after the child’s death, provided the individual continued to be eligible for the CCB.

The budget proposes to extend the list of expenses recognized for the disability supports deduction.

It also provides that expenses for service animals, as defined under the medical expense tax credit (METC) rules, will be recognized under the disability supports deduction. The individual will choose whether to claim under the METC or the disability supports deduction.

A foreign charity may register as a qualified donee for a 24-month period where it received a gift from His Majesty in right of Canada and it is pursuing certain activities in the national interest of Canada.  The budget proposes to extend the eligibility of a foreign charity to be considered a qualified donee from 24 months to 36 months.  The foreign charity would also be required to submit an annual information return to the CRA that would be made publicly available. The extension will apply to foreign charities registered after April 16, 2024. The reporting requirements will apply to taxation years beginning after April 16, 2024.        

The budget also proposes to simplify the issuance of official donation receipts by removing certain requirements.

Home Buyers’ Plan (HBP)

To help first-time home buyers, the budget proposes to:

• increase, from $35,000 to $60,000, the amount that an eligible home buyer can withdraw from their Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) under the HBP, without subjecting the withdrawal to tax, to buy or build a qualifying home (i.e. a first home or a home for a specified disabled individual), effective for the 2024 and subsequent calendar years, for withdrawals made after April 16, 2024
• temporarily extend the repayment grace period by three years, to five years, under the HBP, so that eligible home buyers who withdraw from their RRSP between January 1, 2022 and December 31, 2025 will have up to five years before they need to start repayments to their RRSP

Registered plans (RRSPs, Registered Retirement Income Funds, Tax-Free Savings Accounts, Registered Education Savings Plans, Registered Disability Savings Plans, First Home Savings Accounts, and Deferred Profit Sharing Plans) can invest only in qualified investments for those plans. Qualified investments include mutual funds, publicly traded securities, government and corporate bonds and guaranteed investment certificates. Over the years the qualified investment rules have been expanded to include additional investments for certain plans and to reflect the introduction of new types of plans, but there are inconsistencies and the qualified investment rules are difficult to understand in some cases.

Specific issues are currently under consideration. Stakeholders are invited to submit comments by July 15, 2024 as to how the qualified investment rules can be modernized on a prospective basis to improve the clarity and coherence of the registered plans regime.

Eligible tradespeople and apprentices in the construction industry are currently able to deduct up to $4,000 in eligible travel and relocation expenses per year by claiming the labour mobility deduction for tradespeople. A private member’s bill (Bill C-241) was introduced to enact an alternative deduction for certain travel expenses of tradespeople in the construction industry, with no cap on expenses, retroactive to the 2022 taxation year.

The budget announces that the government will consider bringing forward amendments to the Income Tax Act (ITA) to provide a single, harmonized deduction for tradespeople’s travel that respects the intent of Bill C-241.

The budget proposes to amend the ITA to exclude from taxation the income of the trusts established under the First Nations Child and Family Services, Jordan’s Principle, and Trout Class Settlement Agreement. This will also ensure that payments received by class members as beneficiaries of the trusts will not be included when computing income for federal income tax purposes.

This measure will apply to the 2024 and subsequent taxation years.

Business tax measures

The 2023 budget proposed a refundable ITC for clean electricity, equal to 15% of the capital cost of eligible property. The 2024 budget provides the design and implementation details of the ITC, including the eligibility criteria. It also includes special rules for property that generates electricity from natural gas with carbon capture and property used to transmit electrical energy between provinces or territories, as well as details of the compliance and recovery process.

The ITC will be available only to eligible Canadian corporations, which are defined as:

• taxable Canadian corporations and pension investment corporations
• provincial and territorial Crown corporations (subject to additional requirements)
• corporations owned by municipalities or Indigenous communities

Property eligible for the ITC includes equipment used to generate electricity from:

• solar, wind or water energy (certain class 43.1 property, but hydroelectric installations would not be subject to a capacity limit)
• concentrated solar energy (as defined for the purposes of the proposed clean technology ITC)
• nuclear fission, including heat generating equipment (as defined for the purposes of the proposed clean technology ITC, without the generating capacity limits and other certain requirements of that credit)
• geothermal energy, including heat generating equipment, if it is used exclusively for that purpose (excluding equipment that is part of a system that extracts fossil fuel for sale)
• specified waste materials, as part of a system

Eligible property also includes equipment that is:

• stationary electricity storage equipment and equipment used for pumped hydroelectric energy storage (excluding any that uses a fossil fuel in operation)
• part of an eligible natural gas energy system (special rules apply)
• used for transmission of electricity between provinces and territories (special rules apply)

Previously proposed labour requirements must be met to qualify for the 15% ITC, otherwise a 5% ITC is available. The ITC will be subject to potential repayment obligations, repayable in proportion to the FMV of the particular property when it has been converted to an ineligible use, exported from Canada, or disposed of.

The ITC will be available for new eligible property (i.e. has not been used for any purposes before its acquisition) that is acquired and becomes available for use after April 15, 2024 and before 2035 in respect of projects that did not begin construction before March 28, 2023.

The budget introduces the EV supply chain ITC, equal to 10% of the cost of buildings used in Canada in the following electric vehicle supply chain segments:

• electric vehicle assembly
• electric vehicle battery production
• cathode active material production

To qualify for the ITC, the taxpayer (or member of a group of related taxpayers) must claim the clean technology manufacturing ITC (CTMITC) in all three of the segments (or must claim the CTMITC in two of the three segments and hold at least a qualifying minority interest in an unrelated corporation that claims the CTMITC in the third segment – the building costs of the unrelated corporation would also qualify for the new ITC).

The ITC is effective for property that is acquired and becomes available for use after December 31, 2023. The ITC will be reduced to 5% for 2033 and 2034 and 0% after 2034. Design and implementation details of the ITC will be provided in the 2024 Fall Economic Statement.

The 2023 budget proposed a clean technology manufacturing ITC, and draft legislative proposals were released in December 2023. The 2024 budget proposes to update the clean technology manufacturing ITC for production of qualifying minerals (such as copper, nickel, cobalt, lithium, graphite and rate earth elements) that occur at polymetallic projects (i.e. projects engaged in the production of multiple minerals) by:

• clarifying that the value of qualifying materials will be used as the appropriate output metric when assessing the extent to which property is used (or expected to be used) for qualifying mineral activities producing qualifying materials
• modifying eligible expenditures to include investments in eligible property used in qualifying mineral activities that are expected to produce primarily qualifying materials at mine or well sites, including tailing ponds and mills located at these sites (50% or more of the financial value of the output comes from qualifying materials)

A safe harbour rule will apply to the recapture rule for all qualifying mineral activities, to mitigate against the effects of mineral price volatility on the potential recapture of the ITC, the details of which will be provided at a later date.

Accelerated Capital Cost Allowance (CCA)

Purpose-built rental housing.

The budget provides an accelerated CCA of 10% for new eligible purpose-built rental projects that begin construction after April 15, 2024 and before January 1, 2031, and are available for use before January 1, 2036.

Eligible property will be new purpose-built rental housing that is a residential complex:

• with at least four private apartment units, or 10 private rooms or suites, and
• in which at least 90% of residential units are held for long-term rental

The Accelerated Investment Incentive (AII), which suspends the half-year rule, will continue to apply to eligible property put in use before 2028. The accelerated CCA will not apply to renovations of existing residential complexes, but new additions to an existing structure will be eligible. Projects that convert existing non-residential real estate into a residential complex will be eligible.

Productivity-enhancing assets

The budget provides immediate expensing (i.e. a 100% first-year CCA deduction) for property that is acquired after April 15, 2024 and becomes available for use before January 1, 2027, for the following CCA classes of assets:

• class 44 (patents or rights to use patented information for a limited or unlimited period)
• class 46 (data network infrastructure equipment and related systems software)
• class 50 (general-purpose electronic data-processing equipment and systems software)

The accelerated CCA will be available only for the year in which the property becomes available for use. For a short taxation year, the accelerated CCA must be prorated and will not be available in the following taxation year. Property that becomes available for use after 2026 and before 2028 will continue to benefit from the AII.

Property that has been used (or acquired for use) for any purpose before it is acquired by the taxpayer will be eligible for the accelerated CCA only if both of the following conditions are met:

• neither the taxpayer nor a non-arm’s length person previously owned the property, and
• the property has not been transferred to the taxpayer on a tax-deferred “rollover” basis

The excessive interest and financing expenses limitation (EIFEL) rules restrict a Canadian taxpayer’s deductions for interest and financing expenses, based upon a percentage of its “tax-EBITDA” (i.e. its taxable income, adjusted for items such as interest expenses, depreciation and amortization). For a discussion of the EIFEL rules, see our  Tax Insights “ Bill C-59 ─ Excessive interest and financing expenses limitation (EIFEL) regime .” The EIFEL rules currently include a single sector-specific exemption, for certain interest and financing expenses relating to public-private partnership (P3) infrastructure projects. The budget proposes to extend this election, on an elective basis, for certain interest and financing expenses relating to arm’s length financing that is used to build or acquire certain purpose-built rental housing located in Canada. This exemption will be effective for taxation years beginning after September 30, 2023, consistent with the EIFEL rules more generally. However, this exemption will be available only for expenses incurred before January 1, 2036.

The government is concerned that some landowners are holding residentially zoned vacant land as a speculative investment. The budget announces that the government will consider introducing a new tax on residentially zoned vacant land to spur development. The government will launch consultations later this year.

In March 2024, the government began consultations on how federal policies can better support the needs of all Canadians seeking to become homeowners. The government will provide an update in the 2024 Fall Economic Statement.

The budget announces the government’s intention to restrict the acquisition of existing single-family homes by very large corporate investors. The government will consult in the coming months and provide further details in the 2024 Fall Economic Statement.

The budget announces that the government is exploring new measures to expand access to alternative financing products for home purchasers, such as halal mortgages. These measures could include changes in the tax treatment of these products or a new regulatory regime for financial service providers, while ensuring adequate consumer protections are in place.

The budget proposes several amendments to the CRA’s information gathering provisions in the ITA, with the intent of enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of tax audits and facilitating the collection of tax revenues on a timelier basis. These changes include:

• allowing the CRA to issue a new type of notice, referred to as a “notice of non-compliance” and to levy a monetary penalty
• permitting the CRA to specify that any required information (oral or written) or documents be provided under oath or affirmation
• imposing a penalty when the CRA obtains a compliance order against a taxpayer, and
• extending the stop the clock rules (which suspend the counting of days in the assessment limitation period), so that these rules apply when a taxpayer seeks judicial review of any requirement or notice issued to the taxpayer by the CRA in relation to the audit and enforcement process, and during any period that a notice of non-compliance is outstanding

Analogous amendments are also proposed to other federal tax statutes administered by the CRA. The budget also proposes certain technical amendments to ensure the rules meet their policy objectives.

These amendments would come into force upon royal assent of the enacting legislation.

The ITA allows a corporation to deduct the amount of any dividends received on a share of a corporation resident in Canada, subject to certain limitations.

One of these limitations is an anti-avoidance rule that denies the dividend received deduction in connection with synthetic equity arrangements. Synthetic equity arrangements include arrangements in which a person receives a dividend on a share, but all or substantially all of the risk of loss and opportunity for gain or profit (the “economic exposure”) in respect of the share are provided to another person.

Where a taxpayer enters into a synthetic equity arrangement in respect of a share, the taxpayer is generally obligated to compensate the other person for the amount of any dividends paid on the share. This compensation payment may result in a tax deduction for the taxpayer in addition to the dividend received deduction. Unless the anti-avoidance rule applies to deny the dividend received deduction, a tax loss would generally arise as a result of the two deductions.

The anti-avoidance rule incorporates certain exceptions, including where the taxpayer establishes that no tax-indifferent investor has all or substantially all of the economic exposure in respect of the share. An associated exception is also available for synthetic equity arrangements traded on a derivatives exchange.

The budget proposes to remove the tax-indifferent investor exception (including the exchange traded exception) to the anti-avoidance rule. This measure would prevent taxpayers from claiming the dividend received deduction for dividends received on a share in respect of which there is a synthetic equity arrangement.

This measure would apply to dividends received after December 31, 2024.

A mutual fund is a type of investment vehicle that allows investors to pool their money and invest in a portfolio of investments without purchasing the investments directly. A mutual fund corporation is a mutual fund organized as a corporation that meets certain conditions set out in the ITA.

The ITA includes special rules for mutual fund corporations that facilitate conduit treatment for investors (shareholders). For example, these rules generally allow capital gains realized by a mutual fund corporation to be treated as capital gains realized by its investors. In addition, a mutual fund corporation is not subject to mark-to-market taxation and can elect capital gains treatment on the disposition of Canadian securities.

To qualify as a mutual fund corporation under the ITA, a corporation must satisfy several conditions, including that it must be a “public corporation”. A corporation can meet this condition if a class of its shares is listed on a designated stock exchange in Canada. A corporation that is controlled by a corporate group may satisfy this condition, and qualify as a mutual fund corporation, even though it is not widely held. The government is concerned that this could allow a corporate group to use a mutual fund corporation to benefit from the special rules available to these corporations in an unintended manner.

Although the government believes this planning can be challenged based on existing rules in the ITA, the budget proposes specific amendments to the ITA to preclude a corporation from qualifying as a mutual fund corporation where it is controlled by or for the benefit of a corporate group (including a corporate group that consists of any combination of corporations, individuals, trusts, and partnerships that do not deal with each other at arm’s length). Exceptions would be provided to ensure that the measure does not adversely affect mutual fund corporations that are widely held pooled investment vehicles.

This measure would apply to taxation years that begin after 2024.

The budget introduces the Canada Carbon Rebate for Small Business, to return a portion of the federal backstop pollution pricing fuel charge proceeds collected from a province. This will be an automatic refundable tax credit for CCPCs with less than 500 employees in Canada in the calendar year in which the fuel charge begins. The tax credit in respect of the 2019-20 to 2023-24 fuel charge years will be available to a CCPC that files a tax return for its 2023 taxation year by July 15, 2024 (with similar timelines for future fuel charge years).

The tax credit amount:

• is determined for each applicable province in which the eligible corporation had employees in the calendar year in which the fuel charge year begins; and
• is equal to the number of persons employed by the eligible corporation in the province in that calendar year multiplied by a payment rate specified by the Minister of Finance for the province for the corresponding fuel charge year

The ITA includes an anti-avoidance rule that is intended to prevent taxpayers from avoiding payment of their tax liabilities by transferring their assets to non-arm’s length persons. The effect of this tax debt avoidance rule is to make the transferee jointly and severally, or solidarily, liable with the transferor for the transferor’s tax debts, to the extent that the value of the property transferred exceeds the amount of consideration given by the transferee for the property.

The ITA contains a number of rules that address various planning techniques employed by taxpayers attempting to circumvent the tax debt avoidance rule, as well as a penalty for those who engage in, participate in, assent to, or acquiesce in planning activity that they know, or would reasonably be expected to know, is tax debt avoidance planning.

The budget includes a new specific measure to address tax debt avoidance planning (although the government believes this planning can also be challenged based on existing rules in the ITA). The measure would apply in the following circumstances:

• there has been a transfer of property from a tax debtor to another person
• as part of the same transaction or series of transactions, there has been a separate transfer of property from a person other than the tax debtor to a transferee that does not deal at arm’s length with the tax debtor, and
• one of the purposes of the transaction or series is to avoid joint and several, or solidary, liability

Where these conditions are met, the property transferred by the tax debtor would be deemed to have been transferred to the transferee for the purposes of the tax debt avoidance rule. This would ensure that the tax debt avoidance rule applies in situations where property has been transferred from a tax debtor to a person and, as part of the same transaction or series, property has been received by a non-arm’s length person. The penalty applicable to those who participate in tax debt avoidance planning would also be extended to this proposed new rule.

In many cases, tax debt avoidance planning is facilitated by a planner who receives a significant fee, which is effectively funded by a portion of the avoided tax debt. The courts have held that a taxpayer who engages in tax debt avoidance planning is normally not jointly and severally, or solidarily, liable for the portion of the tax debt that has effectively been retained by the planner as a fee. The budget proposes that taxpayers who participate in tax debt avoidance planning be jointly and severally, or solidarily, liable for the full amount of the avoided tax debt, including any portion that has effectively been retained by the planner.

Similar amendments would be made to comparable provisions in other federal statutes.

These measures would apply to transactions or series of transactions that occur after April 15, 2024.

The ITA includes a general rule providing that a person who fails to file or make a return or comply with certain specified rules is guilty of an offence, and liable to penalties of up to $25,000 and imprisonment for up to a year. The mandatory disclosure rules in the ITA also include specific penalties that apply in these circumstances, making the application of this general penalty provision unnecessary.

The budget therefore proposes to remove from the scope of the general penalty provision the failure to file an information return in respect of a reportable or notifiable transaction under the mandatory disclosure rules.

This amendment would be deemed to have come into force on June 22, 2023, which is the day the enhanced mandatory disclosure rules received royal assent.

Under the ITA, losses and other tax attributes that arise from expenditures for which a taxpayer did not ultimately bear the cost are generally not recognized. The ITA contains a set of debt forgiveness rules that apply where a commercial debt is settled for less than its principal amount. These rules generally reduce tax attributes by the amount of debt that is forgiven and, where tax attributes have been fully reduced, the rules cause an income inclusion equal to half of the remaining forgiven amount. The ITA also contains a rule that entitles an insolvent corporation to a corresponding deduction to offset all or part of an income inclusion from the debt forgiveness rules.

Bankrupt taxpayers are generally excluded from these debt forgiveness rules. Instead, a separate loss restriction rule applies to extinguish the losses of bankrupt corporations that have received an absolute order of discharge.

The government is concerned that some taxpayers have sought to manipulate the bankrupt status of an insolvent corporation, with a view to benefiting from the exception in the debt forgiveness rules while also avoiding the loss restriction rule applicable to bankrupt corporations. This planning seeks to preserve the losses and other tax attributes of the insolvent corporation (which would otherwise be eliminated upon the forgiveness of its debts), so that these attributes can be acquired and used by a profitable corporation. This planning is the subject of a designated transaction under the notifiable transactions element of the mandatory disclosure rules.

Although the government believes that manipulation of bankrupt status can be challenged based on existing rules in the ITA, the budget proposes a specific legislative measure to address this issue: repealing the exception to the debt forgiveness rules for bankrupt corporations and the loss restriction rule applicable to bankrupt corporations. This change would subject bankrupt corporations to the general rules that apply to other corporations whose commercial debts are forgiven. The bankruptcy exception to the debt forgiveness rules would remain in place for individuals. While bankrupt corporations would be subject to the reduction of their loss carryforward balances and other tax attributes upon debt forgiveness, as insolvent corporations they could qualify for relief from the debt forgiveness income inclusion rule provided under the existing deduction for insolvent corporations.

These proposals would apply to bankruptcy proceedings that are commenced on or after April 16, 2024.

Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED)

The government launched a consultation on the existing SR&ED tax incentives on January 31, 2024, which closed on April 15, 2024. The budget announces a second phase of consultations, to focus on specific policy parameters, explore how Canadian public companies could become eligible for the enhanced SR&ED ITC and inform how additional funding announced by the budget can support future enhancements to the SR&ED program. Further details of the consultation will be released on the Department of Finance Canada website at a later date.

International tax measures

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has developed a framework for the automatic exchange of tax information relating to transactions in crypto-assets, the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF). The budget proposes to implement the CARF in Canada. The new reporting rules will apply to crypto-asset service providers that are resident in Canada, or carry on business in Canada, and that provide services effectuating exchange transactions in crypto-assets. These service providers will need to report certain information regarding their customers and crypto-asset transactions. The budget also includes proposed amendments to the Canadian rules implementing the OECD’s Common Reporting Standard, including changes relating to electronic money products and central bank digital currencies. These measures will apply to 2026 and subsequent calendar years.

A person who makes a payment to a non-resident for services rendered in Canada is currently required to withhold 15% of the payment and remit that amount to the CRA. This is intended to serve as a prepayment of tax that the non-resident may ultimately owe in Canada. Certain non-residents do not owe Canadian tax for these services, e.g. due to exemptions in tax treaties, or exemptions for specific activities like international shipping. In these circumstances, the CRA may provide an advance waiver from the withholding obligation for specific transactions, or the non-residents may apply for refunds of amounts that have already been withheld. The budget proposes to give the CRA legislative authority to grant single waivers that cover multiple transactions occurring over a specific time period, where certain conditions are satisfied. This measure will take effect upon royal assent of the enacting legislation.

The OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting has developed a two-pillar plan to reform the international tax system, as part of the “BEPS 2.0” initiative. On October 8, 2021, Canada and 135 other countries in the Inclusive Framework committed to adopt this plan (for a discussion on that commitment, see our  Tax Insights  “ The new international tax framework and Canada’s digital services tax ”). The budget provides an update on the two pillars of this international tax reform initiative.

Pillar One will introduce new rules for allocating taxing rights between countries to address challenges raised by the digital economy. These rules will generally apply to multinational enterprises (MNEs) with annual revenue above €20 billion and profit margins above 10%. The right to tax a portion of these MNEs’ profits will be reallocated to market countries (i.e. the countries where the MNEs’ users and customers are located).

The budget reaffirms Canada’s commitment to bringing Pillar One into effect as soon as a critical mass of countries is willing to participate. In the meantime, Canada is moving ahead with its plan to enact the Digital Services Tax (DST). Implementing legislation for the DST is currently before Parliament in Bill C-59. The DST will take effect beginning in calendar year 2024, with the first year covering taxable revenues earned since January 1, 2022. (For a discussion of the DST, see our  Tax Insights  “ Digital Services Tax: One step closer to becoming a reality .”)

Pillar Two will introduce a 15% global minimum tax. This tax will generally apply to MNEs with global revenues of at least €750 million. These MNEs will be required to compute their effective tax rate (ETR) in each country where they operate. If the ETR for a particular country is below 15%, a top-up tax will be imposed, to raise that ETR to 15% (this top-up tax may be reduced by a substance-based income exclusion, which is computed based on the payroll costs and net book value of tangible assets located in the jurisdiction). Draft legislative proposals for a Global Minimum Tax Act to implement the Pillar Two regime in Canada were released for public comment in August 2023 (for a discussion of those proposals, see our  Tax Insights  “ Canada releases draft Global Minimum Tax Act ”). The budget states that Canada is moving forward with this implementing legislation and intends to introduce it in Parliament soon.

Sales tax measures

Extending goods and services tax (gst) relief to student residences.

On September 14, 2023, the government announced that it would temporarily remove the GST from new purpose-built rental housing projects (i.e. apartment buildings, student housing and senior residences built specifically for long-term rental accommodation) by implementing an Enhanced (100%) GST Rental Rebate for new qualifying purpose-built rental housing projects (for more information, see our  Tax Insights  “ Enhanced GST rental rebate for rental apartments that begin construction after September 13, 2023 ").

To ensure that universities, public colleges and school authorities can also claim the Enhanced (100%) GST Rental Rebate for student residences that are built for short-term use, the budget proposes to amend the  Excise Tax Act  to allow them to apply the normal GST/Harmonized sales tax (HST) rules that apply to other builders (i.e. paying GST/HST on the final value of the building) in respect of new student housing projects.

The budget also proposes to relax the rebate conditions so that universities, public colleges and school authorities that operate on a not-for-profit basis (i.e. those that would currently qualify for the Public Service Body rebates under the GST/HST) can claim the 100% rebate in respect of any new student residence that they acquire or construct provided it is primarily for the purpose of providing a place of residence for their students.

The proposed measures would apply to student residences that begin construction after September 13, 2023 and before 2031, and that complete construction before 2036.

The budget proposes to repeal the temporary zero rating of certain face masks or respirators and certain face shields under the GST/HST for supplies made after April 30, 2024.

Previously Announced Measures

The budget confirms that the government will proceed with the following previously announced measures, as modified to take into account consultations, deliberations and legislative developments since their announcement or release:

• legislative proposals released on December 20, 2023, which include measures relating to the clean hydrogen ITC, the clean technology manufacturing ITC, concessional loans and short-term rentals
• legislative and regulatory proposals announced in the 2023 Fall Economic Statement, which include measures relating to the Canadian journalism labour tax credit, the expansion of eligibility for the clean technology and clean electricity ITC, the GST/HST joint venture election rules and the Underused Housing Tax
• legislative and regulatory amendments to implement the Enhanced (100%) GST Rental Rebate for purpose-built rental housing announced on September 14, 2023
• the carbon capture, utilization and storage and the clean technology ITCs and labour requirements related to certain “clean economy” ITCs
• enhancing the reduced tax rates for zero-emission technology manufacturers
• flow-through shares and the critical mineral exploration tax credit – lithium from brines
• Retirement Compensation Arrangements
• strengthening the Intergenerational Business Transfer framework
• the income tax and GST/HST treatment of credit unions
• a tax on repurchases of equity
• modernizing the General Anti-Avoidance Rule
• global minimum tax and DST
• technical amendments to GST/HST rules for financial institutions
• providing relief in relation to the GST/HST treatment of payment card clearing services
• extending the quarterly duty remittance option to all licensed cannabis producers
• revised Luxury Tax draft regulations to provide greater clarity on the tax treatment of luxury items
• technical tax amendments to the ITA and the Income Tax Regulations
• legislative amendments to implement changes discussed in the transfer pricing consultation paper released on June 6, 2023
• tax measures announced in the 2023 budget, including the dividend received deduction by financial institutions
• substantive CCPCs
• technical amendments to the ITA and Income Tax Regulations
• legislative amendments to implement the hybrid mismatch arrangements rules announced in the 2021 budget

The budget also reaffirms the government’s commitment to move forward, as required, with technical amendments to improve the certainty and integrity of the tax system.

Integration – Capital gains ($)

(taxation year ended December 31, 2024, and $10,000 of capital gains earned after June 24, 2024)

This table shows:

• the income tax deferral (prepayment) if capital gains in excess of $250,000 are earned and retained in a corporation as opposed to being earned directly by an individual
• the tax (cost) if the after-tax corporate income is paid out as a dividend to the shareholder in 2024

The table assumes:

• the individual is in the top marginal tax rate
• no capital gains deductions are available
• the non-taxable portion of the capital gain is distributed as a tax-free capital dividend
• the taxable dividend paid is sufficient to generate a full refund of refundable tax 

Download a PDF

Tax Insights: 2024 Federal budget ─ Supporting housing, raising taxes

Dean Landry

National Tax Leader, PwC Canada

Tel: +1 416 815 5090

© 2018 - 2024 PwC. All rights reserved. PwC refers to the PwC network and/or one or more of its member firms, each of which is a separate legal entity. Please see www.pwc.com/structure for further details.

• Cookies info
• Terms & Conditions
• Site Provider
• Accessibility