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B-206538 1 (1982-09-14)

handle is hein.gao/gaobadkpp0001 and id is 1 raw text is: % . THE OOMPTRCLLW. CENIEFIAL DECISIONOF THE UNITED SI'ATE. I WA 3HI NOGTON. D.C , 2054 8 FILE: B-206538 DATE: September 14, 1982 MATTER OF; John D. Johnson and Myron S. K. Char.g IISEBT: Government employees who were relocated to I1awali and who paid charges for state-required quarantine of their pets as condition of entry into state may bct reimbursed for this cost under uiscellaneous expenses Ellowance. Quarantine costs were incurred as a consequence of establishing residence at u new location and qualify as a general type oZl cost authorized for reimbursement by the allowance. We have been asked to consider whether arimal quarantine fees assessed by the State of Hawaii as a condition to the entry of household pets into the state may be reimbursed as part of the miscellaneous expenses allowance poyable incident to an employee's transfer. Because the quarantine is routinely imposed under state law without :tegard to the health oi the animal Involved, the fee ;bay be regarded as a cost inherent in the relocation of art em- ployee's place of residence and it may be reimbursed smtbject to the limitations otherwise applicable tc payment of the miscellaneous expenoes allowance. The isst'e arises in connection with claims submitted by two Internal Revenue Service employees, Messrs. John D. Johnson and Myron S. K. Chang. Both brought family pets with them when they were transferred to Hawaii in 1980. Both were assessed quarvntine fees under the law of the State of Hawaii which provides that domestic aninmals may be quarantined upon arrival in the state. I1awaii Rev. Stat., §§ 142-6 to 142-28. As a matter of actual practice, the Hawaii Department of Agriculture routinely quaran-. tines dogs and cats for the first 120 days after arrival in the state. In disallowing their claims for quarantine fees as items of miscellaneous expense, our Claims Group noted that pets are excluded from the regulatory definition of household goods and that the miscellaneous expenses allowance may not be used to allow costs that are disallowed elsewhere in the regulations. Upon appeal fe'om the Claims Group's disallowance, the claimants argue that the exclusion of pets from the regulatory de/1initior of household goods at paragraph 2-1.4h of the Federal Travel Regulationu (FPrR 101-7) (tiay 1973, as wmende!) (FTR) does not itself mandate disallowance of the quarantine costs in question. While the claim- ants recognize that this definition has the effect of precluding w. - - - * 4 -*-- -n- ----. - *---- - a* --a --- r- -*- - . a e *- ww w .6

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