Home / Resources / 2 CFR 200.414 explained
Updated August 2026
The regulation that lets you charge overhead to a federal grant without negotiating a rate, and the number in it that recently changed.
If you have never negotiated an indirect cost rate with a federal agency, §200.414(f) lets you charge up to 15% of modified total direct costs anyway, with no documentation required to justify it. That number was 10% until the Uniform Guidance revision effective 1 October 2024.
Indirect costs are the real costs of running your organization that no single grant pays for: the bookkeeper, the rent, the insurance, the person who answers the phone. Grants fund programs. Something has to fund the organization that delivers them.
§200.414 is the section that says you are allowed to charge some of it. Many small nonprofits do not, either because they did not know they could or because they assumed it required a negotiation they had no capacity for. It does not.
“Recipients and subrecipients that do not have a current Federal negotiated indirect cost rate (including provisional rate) may elect to charge a de minimis rate of up to 15 percent of modified total direct costs (MTDC).”
Three things follow from the text, and each one matters:
One limit worth knowing: the de minimis rate does not apply to cost reimbursement contracts issued directly by the federal government.
The rate is 15% of MTDC, and MTDC is a specific, narrower number than your direct costs. From §200.1:
| In the MTDC base | |
|---|---|
| Included | Direct salaries and wages, applicable fringe benefits, materials and supplies, services, travel, and up to the first $50,000 of each subaward |
| Excluded | Equipment, capital expenditures, charges for patient care, rental costs, tuition remission, scholarships and fellowships, participant support costs, and the portion of each subaward above $50,000 |
Rent is excluded. That surprises people, because rent feels like the definitive indirect cost. It is excluded from the base you multiply by, not from what the rate is meant to cover.
A program budget has $180,000 of salaries and fringe, $20,000 of supplies and travel, $30,000 of rent, and one $70,000 subaward.
MTDC = $180,000 + $20,000 + $50,000 (the first $50,000 of the subaward) = $250,000. Rent is out; $20,000 of the subaward is out.
Indirect at 15% = $37,500.
Applying 15% to the full $300,000 would have given $45,000, which is $7,500 you are not entitled to and an auditor will find.
If you do go through a negotiation, §200.414(c)(1) protects the result: negotiated indirect cost rates must be accepted by all federal agencies, with narrow exceptions where a statute or regulation requires otherwise or the awarding agency approves a deviation under specified conditions.
This matters for pass-through money too. A pass-through entity cannot simply refuse to honour your rate because its own budget is tight. If you have a negotiated rate, or you have elected the de minimis rate, that is what applies to the subaward.
And once you have a negotiated rate, §200.414(g) lets you apply for a one-time extension of up to four years rather than renegotiating. During the extension you may not request a rate review until it ends.
This is general information, not legal or accounting advice. Federal grant rules change and are applied differently by different agencies and auditors. Check with your auditor, your grant officer, or an attorney before relying on any of it.
The Ember tool for thisEmber Money tracks what each program and grant has raised and spent, keeps restricted funds separate, and gives you the direct-cost base you need to apply an indirect rate, with unlimited users on every plan.
Under 2 CFR 200.414(f), recipients and subrecipients without a current federal negotiated indirect cost rate may elect to charge up to 15 percent of modified total direct costs. It requires no documentation to justify and may be used indefinitely.
15 percent. It was 10 percent until the Uniform Guidance revision effective 1 October 2024. Older articles, funder templates and budget forms still show 10 percent.
MTDC includes direct salaries and wages, fringe benefits, materials and supplies, services, travel, and up to the first $50,000 of each subaward. It excludes equipment, capital expenditures, patient care, rental costs, tuition remission, scholarships, participant support costs, and the part of any subaward above $50,000.
No. The de minimis rate exists so that organizations without a negotiated rate can still recover indirect costs. If you do have a current negotiated rate, you must use it instead.
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Sources: 2 CFR Part 200 (eCFR), §200.414 and the MTDC definition at §200.1. Verified August 2026. Read the sections themselves before relying on any summary.