Staff costs cover costs for staff members employed by the partner organisation and who work on the project directly. Staff costs refers to the partner organisation’s gross employment costs, which usually comprise: • Salary payments (specified in an employment/ work contract) • Other costs directly linked to salary payments paid and not recoverable by the employer: - Employment taxes - Social security (including health coverage and pension contributions). In accordance with the partner organisation’s personnel policy, costs such as bonuses, fuel, lease car, relocation benefits, luncheon vouchers, etc. can be fully or partly claimed after calculating the share eligible for the project. Only the costs or the share of the costs that are not recoverable by the employer are eligible.

The task assignment letter is a document setting out the fixed percentage worked on the project by a staff member of a partner organisation. Unless this percentage is indicated in an another document (e.g. the employment contract), the task assignment letter should be provided as a supporting document when reporting the costs. It usually: • is issued for the specific employee at the beginning of the period to which it applies • is dated and signed by the employee and a line manager/ supervisor • contains the percentage of time dedicated to the project per month and a description of the projectrelated role, responsibilities, and monthly tasks assigned to the employee in question and which provides sufficient evidence for the time allocation • Is reviewed (e.g., during the annual staff appraisal) and the percentage and/or description of tasks adjusted, if really needed (e.g., if the role, tasks and/or responsibilities of the employee change). A template is available on Interreg Europe website.

In Interreg Europe, the travel and accommodation costs are calculated: 1) as a flat rate of 15% of the partner’s staff costs 2) or on a real cost basis, only when the flat rate is not an appropriate method for the partner for justified reasons (e.g., the project partner comes from an outermost or remote region). For the sake of simplification, project partners are asked to choose option 1 (flat rate). If a project partner chooses option 2 (real costs), they must justify why in the application form. Each project partner will have to indicate their choice between options 1 and 2 in the application form. It will not be possible to change this choice after the signature of the subsidy contract. The flat rate for travel and accommodation costs represents a major simplification. With the 15% flat rate, projects do not need to plan a detailed budget for the ‘travel and accommodation’ cost category. The application form will automatically calculate a budget corresponding to 15% of the planned staff costs for each partner choosing this option. When it comes to reporting travel and accommodation expenditure, the flat rate of 15% is automatically applied to the reported eligible staff costs of each project partner concerned. Project partners do not need to provide justification or supporting documents for travel and accommodation costs. Nor do they need to document that the expenditure has been incurred and paid or that the flat rate corresponds to reality.