Important Notice to Tri-Council Grant Holders re: Gratuities

After a significant amount of consultation with the Tri-Council agencies (NSERC, SSHRC and CIHR), Queen’s University received a revised ruling from the Tri-agencies on December 21, 2012 regarding gratuities. Prior to this, gratuities were not allowable charges on Tri-agency grants unless mandatory (Ex: If a meal included the cost of a gratuity and the claimant was obligated to pay the full cost).

The revised ruling provided by the agencies on December 21, 2012 stated that gratuities would now be deemed eligible expenses against agency grants as long as the following conditions apply:

• The gratuity must be deemed reasonable by the agencies. Reasonable gratuities have been defined by the agencies as not to exceed 20%.
• The gratuity must be receipted (the amount must be included in the detailed receipt provided by the vendor). In cases where a claimant manually writes the tip amount and a revised total on the receipt, a copy of the credit card statement supporting the total amount paid along with the receipt must be submitted with the claim.
• In the absence of a receipt, a written justification must support the charge as well as the reason for the lack of a receipt.

If these criteria are not met, the gratuity would be disallowed by the agencies and therefore could not be charged to the grant.

This change will apply to expenses incurred on December 21, 2012 or later and will not be applied to claims prior to this date.

Kind Regards,

Research Accounting