What are meal vouchers worth to you per year?
Meal vouchers reach you almost untaxed, which is why they beat salary euro for euro. See what a full year is worth at the 2026 maximums.
Your numbers
Sets the marginal rate the vouchers are compared against.
Your answer
Untaxed value per year
€2,049
- Extra cost if paid as salary
- €2,944
- Employer share per day
- €8.91
- Working days counted
- 230
Free — no signup
At €8.91 of employer share per working day across 230 days, meal vouchers put €2,049 of untaxed value in your pocket over a year. Handing you the same value as gross remuneration instead would have cost €2,944 more, because salary carries social contributions and income tax.
How this is calculated
A voucher has a face value split into an employer share and a much smaller employee share. The employer share is what reaches you free of social contributions and income tax. The comparison figure grosses that up by the tax wedge on salary at the remuneration level you entered — the higher your marginal rate, the more the vouchers are worth. Note that only part of each voucher is corporate-tax deductible for the company, and the maximum face value requires a collective or individual written agreement; it is not automatic.
Rates and thresholds, tax year 2026
| Maximum face value per voucher | €10 |
|---|---|
| Employer share | €8.91 |
| Employee share | €1.09 |
| Working days per year | 230 |
| Corporate-tax deductible per voucher | €4 |
Rule set verified as of 2026-07-20
Questions people ask
- Do I need a written agreement?
- Yes. The maximum face value has to be set out in a collective labour agreement or, for a one-person company, an individual written agreement. Without it the vouchers can be reclassified as ordinary pay.
- Can a one-person company issue vouchers to its own director?
- Yes, a director in a company can receive meal vouchers on the same terms as staff, provided the conditions on face value, employee share and one voucher per actually worked day are respected.
- Are the vouchers fully deductible for the company?
- No — only a fixed portion of each voucher is deductible from corporate tax, which is why the rate table above lists it separately. The advantage still holds, because the personal saving is far larger than the lost deduction.
This article is general information for a one-person company (BV/SRL), not tax advice. Rules and figures change — confirm your situation with your accountant before acting.
Fiscalance Editorial · Updated 5 August 2026