5 Advantages of receiving your meal allowance in card
19 de May, 2025
Although it is not compulsory in the private sector, the meal allowance (or food allowance) is a benefit granted by most companies in Portugal. The aim is to support employees’ expenses with meals and food during their working day.
This salary supplement can be paid in cash, together with the workers’ monthly salary, or through a social voucher – the so-called meal card.
The latter option is increasingly being chosen by employers, as it has several advantages over paying the allowance in cash.
Here are the main advantages of receiving your food allowance by card.
1 – Tax benefits
As a social benefit – which aims to ensure that workers have access to a nutritious meal during their working day – the meal allowance has associated tax advantages. However, these tax advantages are exacerbated when the format for granting the allowance is the meal card:
- Payment in cash: exemption from Social Security and IRS for employees up to €6.00/day.
- Payment by meal card: exemption from Social Security and IRS for employees up to €10.20/day.
The tax-free amount for meal cards is 70% higher than the tax-free amount when the allowance is received in cash, together with the salary.
2 – Greater liquidity
Since the tax-free amount is higher for meal cards, companies can maximize the amount granted without increasing the tax burden. As such, this results in a higher net income for the employee.
For example, if your company gives you €10.20/day in meal cards, the total net amount you receive at the end of a year is €2,468.40. But if the same amount is given in cash, the annual amount becomes €2,143.16 (because the respective IRS and TSU deductions are applied from €6.00). This means that receiving the allowance in cardboard can result in an annual gain of 325.24€.
This increase in net income for food expenses is particularly relevant at a time when the price of food continues to rise.
3 – Improved quality of life
The purpose of the food allowance card is to ensure that this benefit is used for its intended purpose, i.e. to purchase meals or foodstuffs for cooking.
In this way, employers are able to promote the quality of life, health and well-being of their employees more effectively.
4 – Flexibility of use
Meal cards can be used in various establishments such as restaurants, supermarkets, cafés, pastry shops and bakeries, butchers and fishmongers, among others. Edenred Refeição, for example, is accepted in a network of over 38,000 member establishments.
In addition to this range of establishments, most meal cards are also flexible in their use, allowing payment via the physical card or cell phone.
This is the case with Edenred Refeição, which, being associated with MB WAY, allows contactless payments to be made in physical establishments as well as purchases in online stores and home delivery platforms.
5 – Associated discounts
In the case of Edenred Meal, all users of this card have access to the Discounts and Advantages Program, with exclusive conditions and offers on more than 80 health and wellness brands, insurance, energy, telecommunications, mobility and much more.
Thus, in addition to the increased liquidity provided by the meal card itself, there is also easier access to various goods and services that may be useful to you.