Introduced in Romania in 1998, the meal tickets are one of the most common benefits. Late last year, there were 1.9 million recipients of food vouchers, according to estimates of the Institute of National Economy of the Romanian Academy. The meal tickets are covered by the law 142/1998, shall be granted only for individual labor contracts and are exempt from contributions.

Legislative characteristics of meal tickets

• are given only for the basic function, for days worked;
• can provide both individual contracts of part-time work, if the employee has the basic function to the contract, and for those who provide work from home;
• are liable to income tax;
• are exempt from taxes for employer;
• issuing units are paid before distribution;
• are included on the payroll separately on the heading Expenses meal vouchers given to employees, with the nominal value of the tickets;
• are distributed in advance for a month and the employee is required to return the meal vouchers in excess of the number of days worked at the end of the month.

Many employers choose to grant food stamps because they are a form of employee loyalty. A meal ticket value is determined by the Minister of Labor, relative to the consumer price index for foodstuffs.

The employer can‘t provide meal vouchers with a value greater than the established legal, but the law does not establish a minimum value for the meal tickets offered. From 1 May 2013 the maximum value of a meal ticket was set at 9.35 lei by the Order no. 882/2013.

What employees do not qualify for meal tickets

The employees who, according to legal provisions, are entitled to free meals, subsistence allowance or food allowance won’t benefit from the law 142/1998, according to Article 34 of the Implementing Rules.

There aren’t considered days worked times for the employees:

• holidays;
• paid days off, in the case of family events, festive days and legal holidays or other days off granted under collective labor agreements;
• the days when the employee is delegated or deployed outside the town where he has permanent place of work and receive daily or monthly allowance of delegation or detachment;
• the employee is in temporary disability leave, is absent from work or in other situations determined by the employer together with employee representatives.

Employer may choose to provide all employees with work contracts and basic function with meal tickets or grant them differently. Also, the employer may choose as retains and pays tax of 16% applied to the face value of the vouchers awarded in a month. In practice, most companies choose to withhold tax at source and subtract it from net income of the employee.

The value of meal tickets is written separately on the income statement and can be taken into account by some banks when calculating scoring at the request of the employee’s credit. But  meal tickets are not taken into account in determining sick leave payment.

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