{"id":140442,"date":"2026-01-28T11:23:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T11:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.edenred.pt\/uncategorized\/meal-allowance-2026-what-amounts-should-be-considered\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T11:35:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T11:35:07","slug":"meal-allowance-2026-what-amounts-should-be-considered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edenred.pt\/en\/news\/employee-benefits\/meal-allowance-2026-what-amounts-should-be-considered\/","title":{"rendered":"Meal allowance 2026: what amounts should be considered?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The meal allowance is a social benefit that companies grant their employees to ensure they have access to a nutritious meal during the working day.<\/p>\n\n<p>In Portugal, this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.edenred.pt\/en\/news\/employee-benefits\/meal-allowance-a-right-or-a-benefit\/\">allowance is one of the most common extra-salary benefits<\/a> and most organizations choose to grant it as a way of supporting employees with their food expenses.<\/p>\n\n<p>In a context where the cost of food continues to weigh on families&#8217; budgets, the amount received in meal allowances can be a significant help.<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Meal allowance amounts and tax framework 2026<\/h2>\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.portugal.gov.pt\/pt\/gc25\/comunicacao\/comunicado?i=governo-assina-novo-acordo-plurianual-de-valorizacao-dos-trabalhadores-da-administracao-publica-2026-2029\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">multi-annual agreement<\/a> signed by the government updated the value of the allowance for public administration workers to \u20ac6.15 per day in 2026.<\/p>\n\n<p>If the allowance is granted via social voucher or card, the maximum tax-free limit can increase by up to 70%. Thus, by updating the value of the allowance by 15 cents, <strong>the exempt amount paid per card will be 10.46\u20ac in 2026.<br\/><\/strong><br\/> Granting the allowance through a social voucher or meal card also allows <strong>for total exemption from TSU for the company and from IRS and TSU for employees<\/strong> up to a maximum amount of 10.46\u20ac\/day. From that amount onwards, the respective deductions apply.  <br\/><br\/>The meal card is an option increasingly valued by Portuguese companies, as it maximizes employees&#8217; disposable income without increasing the tax burden.<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Practical example<\/h2>\n\n<p>If your company gives you \u20ac10.46\/day in meal cards, the total net amount you will receive over the course of a year in meal allowances will be \u20ac2,688.30. If the same amount were paid in cash, and taking into account IRS and Social Security deductions, the annual amount would be \u20ac2,356.55. <br\/><br\/>This means that, by receiving the 2026 meal allowance in cardboard form, <strong>you will have an annual gain of 331.75\u20ac<\/strong>. Considering that a meal costs, on average, around \u20ac11, this gain corresponds to 30 more meals throughout the year. <\/p>\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The meal allowance is a social benefit that companies grant their employees to ensure they have access to a nutritious meal during the working day. In Portugal, this allowance is one of the most common extra-salary benefits and most organizations choose to grant it as a way of supporting employees with their food expenses. In&#8230;","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":140318,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[228],"tags":[125],"target":[128],"class_list":["post-140442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-employee-benefits","tag-edenred-refeicao","target-user"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Meal allowance 2026: what amounts should be considered?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Find out all about the 2026 meal allowance: amounts, tax advantages and how companies can support their employees.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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