The government approved the taxation of meal vouchers for social insurance.
According to Minister of Finance Natalia Gavriliță, currently 30,000 employees each receive about 990 lei worth of meal vouchers per month. This amount is exempt from income taxation and contribution to social security and medical insurance funds.
The minister added that, in April 2019, meal vouchers worth 27 million lei were issued, an increasing amount due to the number of increasing employers who accept this form of food expense coverage for employees. According to estimates, the monthly value of meal vouchers will reach 62 million lei at the end of 2020. Without taxation, the national public budget will be unable to collect 21 million lei per month.
During 2020, estimates show that meal voucher monthly cost will increase by 3 million lei on a monthly basis.
Moreover, the deficit of the State Social Insurance Budget is greater than expected, and the meal voucher cost increase adds additional pressure to the state budget.
Under these conditions, the government wants mandatory social insurance contributions to apply to meal vouchers as well, keeping the same ratio, i.e. 18% paid by the employer and 6% by the employee.
According to data, 620 employers participate in the program and about 30,000 employees receive meal vouchers.
