Budgeting it
Per diem is priced as people x days away from home x daily rate. For a feature that sends a small team on a 3-week distant location with 22 nights away:
| Group | People | Days | Rate | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Principal cast (SAG-AFTRA) | 4 | 22 | $75 | $6,600 |
| Traveling crew (deal memo) | 18 | 22 | $60 | $23,760 |
| Total | $30,360 |
The cast line is 4 x 22 x $75 = $6,600, and the crew line is 18 x 22 x $60 = $23,760. The $60 crew figure is an example deal term, not a union rate. Count travel days: someone who flies out Sunday and shoots Monday is owed per diem for Sunday. The per diem lines sit in the travel and living accounts, above the line for cast and below the line for crew.
How it's paid
Most productions pay per diem weekly in advance, either as a separate check, a direct deposit outside payroll, or cash from a petty cash float on remote shoots. Each payment needs a signature or receipt log, because per diem is one of the first things an auditor checks on a tax credit claim. It also has to be in the cash flow schedule, since a week of per diem for 22 people goes out on day one of the location.
Tax treatment
Per diem isn't wages when it's reimbursement for real travel under an accountable plan, so it doesn't carry fringes. The federal ceiling for tax-free treatment is tied to the published federal per diem rates for the location, which the GSA per diem page lists by city. Paying local hires per diem, or paying more than those rates, can turn part of it into taxable wages.
Per diem errors
Forgetting per diem on travel days, paying it to crew who live in the location city, and budgeting at a rate below the union minimum for performers are the usual ones. Another is reducing per diem for a catered lunch when the deal memo didn't say you could. The film crew per diem post covers how to set a non-union rate by city.