The Order 1069/2015, published recently in the Official Gazette, sets the increasing of the nominal value of a meal ticket by 6 bani, from 9.35 to 9.41 lei for the first half of 2015, starting in May.

The last value increase of a meal ticket was in May 2013, from 9 to 9.35 lei.

Is the employer’s decision to increase or not the value of the provided meal ticket, the law provides only the maximum nominal value. The meal tickets:

• Can be granted only for the employees where they declared their basic function;
• Are treated as salary incomes;
• Are subject to the income tax.

The equivalent value of meal tickets is included in the paysheet for tax calculation and the calculation, the withholding and payment of payroll taxes to the authorities will be made by the employer. This value is taxed by cumulating it with the other salary incomes earned in the month in which they are granted.

The meal tickets are given according to the Implementing rules of law 142/1998. The maximum number of meal tickets is equal to the number of days worked by the employee in a calendar month.

When the meal tickets cannot be granted

The employees who receive meal tickets will not normally receive this type of benefit in the following situations:

• When they have the annual leave;
• On sick leave;
• On paid days off due to special events such as the death of a family member, birth of a child, marriage etc.
• When they are in the delegation and receive per diem.

Under the law, the distributing of the meal tickets can be done both on paper and in an electronic format (since January 2015) and should be done in the last decade of the current month for the next month. In practice, most employers prefer to distribute these tickets at the end of the month or in the beginning of the next one for the past month.

In the case of employees working in shifts with a program greater than 8 hours, it will be split into fractions of 8. The total number of fractions will determine the number of meal tickets that the employees are entitled to received, without exceeding the maximum number of working days in the month.

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