An employer can grant meal vouchers to its employees. Provided certain conditions are met, (the employer’s contributions in) these meal vouchers are exempt from Belgian social security contributions.

In practice and based on the Administrative Commentaries, the Belgian tax authorities accept that meal vouchers are considered as tax-free “social benefits” if certain similar conditions are met (e.g. maximum contribution of the employer and minimum contribution of the employee). This implies that the costs of meal vouchers are disallowed as a tax-deductible expense for the employer.

As recently stated in the Belgian press, Belgian case law from different courts of justice (first instance and appeal, both in a distant and recent past) seem to question the favourable classification of meal vouchers as tax-free “social benefits”. It regards cases where the employers claimed a tax deduction for the costs of meal vouchers. In this context, various courts indeed ruled that meal vouchers were taxable benefits in kind.

It remains to be seen whether this case law will have an impact on the position of the tax authorities for the overwhelming majority of employers in Belgium who grant meal vouchers. In a reply to a very recent parliamentary question on this matter (published on 26 March 2009), the Belgian Minister of Finance has confirmed that he wants to maintain a status quo and to uphold the current situation (classifying meal vouchers as tax-free social benefits). If needed, such an amendment to our Income Tax Code would be considered.

In addition to the above, please note that, as agreed by the Social Partners in their biannual Inter-Sectoral Agreement of December 2008 (“AIP”/”IPA”), employers are free (as from 1st January 2009) to increase the amount of their contributions in meal vouchers from EUR 4.91 up to EUR 5.91 per day (which is a maximum increase of EUR 1.00). Moreover employers are authorised (as from 1 February 2009) to deduct an amount of EUR 1.00 per meal voucher as a deductible expense, even if they do not increase the employer’s contribution.