Step 1 – Fill-in the travel reimbursement form

In order to submit your reimbursement request you will need to fill in an online travel reimbursement form.
In order to fill in the travel reimbursement form please proceed as follows:

• go back to the official invitation email and click on the first link (the same you used to accept the invitation)
• go through the procedure on the COST website. At step 1) and 2) you will only confirm the acceptance of the invitation and that you intend to submit a claim. At step 3) you will be required to login and eventually (at step 5) you will be able to fill in the form.

Step 2 – Delivering the travel reimbursement form and preparing additional documents

Once you have filled in the travel reimbursement form, you need to print it, sign it with a blue pen and deliver it in original to the Grant Holder. A person from the Grant Holder organization, Sapienza Innovazione, will attend every meeting, so it is highly advised to provide the form during the meeting, in order to avoid the need for mail delivery of the form afterwards. 

Along with the form please provide all the documents you have available at the time of the meeting (e.g. plane ticket receipt and boarding passes for the incoming flight); you can send all the remaining documents (e.g. boarding passes and train tickets for the return trip) in electronic form after the meeting to Stefania Della Corte, the person responsible for the reimbursement procedure at Sapienza Innovazione, at the following email address:

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In case you need to deliver documents in original, please send them to the attention of Stefania Della Corte at the following mailing address:

Stefania Della Corte
Sapienza Innovazione
European Project Office
Viale Regina Elena, 291
00161 Rome, Italy

Please note that together with the form we will need electronic copies of your plane tickets, of your boarding passes and of train /long distance tickets. According to COST rules all other expenses (such as hotels and meals) must be reimbursed based on a flat rate (with a few exceptions, such as taxi rides). This conflicts however with Italian fiscal laws, as detailed later in the document.

Important: The first time you ask for a reimbursement to IC0902 you will need to provide some additional information required to be introduced in the accounting system, that is

1. your place of birth,
2. your complete address,
3. if you are italian, your fiscal code.

Taxation of flat rate reimbursements

According to the Italian rules for payments not supported by receipts, the Grant Holder will be forced to apply a taxation (ritenuta d’acconto) to all expenses without receipts. The taxation rate depends on whether the participant pays her/his taxes in Italy or not:

• for participants paying their taxes in Italy the taxation applied is equal to 20%. Based on the rates set by the COST, this would lead for example to 120*0.8=96 €/night for hotel and 20*0.8=16 €/meal.
• for participants paying their taxes outside Italy the taxation applied is equal to 30%. Based on the rates set by the COST, this would lead for example to 120*0.7=84 €/night for hotel and 20*0.7=14 €/meal.

There are a few ways to avoid the application of the taxation, as explained below.

Participants paying their taxes in Italy

The only way for Italian taxpayers to avoid the taxation is to register on eCost an institutional bank account rather than a personal one. In case the participant works for a University or a public body (e.g. a government-funded research center) this will allow reimbursements to be issued without any tax deduction.

Participants paying their taxes outside Italy

Participants paying their taxes in a country different from Italy have the following different options to avoid taxation on reimbursements:

1) Register on eCost an institutional bank account rather than a personal one. In case the participant works for a University or a public body (e.g. a government-funded research center) this will allow reimbursements to be issued without any tax deduction.

2) Send a declaration released by the tax office stating that the participant is a fiscal resident in the country, taking advantage of a treaty between Italy and the country itself to avoid double taxation, if such treaty exists*. Participants can use the double taxation form available here, by submitting it to the tax office and have it signed**. The declaration must be sent in electronic form, together with the travel reimbursement form and a scanned copy of passport of the participant. The declaration should also be provided in original *preferrably* during a meeting together with the rembursement form or at the mailing address indicated above (if possible by express courier).

In this way, again, reimbursements will be issued without any tax deduction.

* the list of countries that signed a fiscal treaty with Italy can be found here.

** Note that the form was provided as a template, but a similar one in English emitted by the tax office of the participant's country and stating that she/he pays her/his taxes in that country will work as well.