Employee Expense Reimbursement Requirements in Montana

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Necessary costs and losses tied directly to the work are covered

Montana Code § 39-2-701(1) requires an employer to indemnify an employee for everything the employee “necessarily expends or loses” in direct consequence of the employee's duties or obedience to employer directions.

The direction may be unlawful, but the protection does not extend to an employee who believed the direction was unlawful when obeying it. The section does not add a separate advance-approval or primary-benefit test.

Ordinary business risks stay with the employee

Montana Code § 39-2-701(2) excludes losses suffered because of the ordinary risks of the business in which the employee works. By contrast, § 39-2-701(3) says the employer must “in all cases” indemnify losses caused by the employer's want of ordinary care.

The statute supplies no claim or payment procedure

Section 39-2-701 states no employee submission deadline, receipt form, itemization requirement, missing-document substitute, employer-policy rule, preapproval procedure, reimbursement cap, payment clock, payment method, or interest provision.

The section creates the indemnity duty but states no agency claim route, statutory penalty, attorney-fee rule, or reimbursement-specific limitations formula.

What trips people up

The statute does not make every loss connected to a workplace reimbursable. The loss must meet the duties-or-directions standard, and an ordinary risk of the business remains excluded unless the employer's want of ordinary care caused the loss.

The section also does not set a category-specific mileage rate, phone percentage, travel allowance, or home-office amount. Its text supplies a necessary-cost and direct-consequence standard instead.

Common questions

Does Montana require advance approval?

Section 39-2-701 states no separate advance-approval requirement. It asks whether the necessary expense or loss directly resulted from the employee's duties or obedience to the employer's directions.

Is there a statutory deadline for submitting receipts?

Not in § 39-2-701. The section states no submission period or required receipt format.

Does the statute set a reimbursement penalty?

Section 39-2-701 creates the indemnity duty but states no penalty, interest, or attorney-fee formula.

Statutes and sources

• Mont. Code Ann. § 39-2-701. Necessary expenditures and losses, the ordinary-business-risk exclusion, and employer-carelessness losses. Official text (accessed July 14, 2026). The current official page carries the same amendment history.