Meal vouchers are not taken into consideration when determining contributory income, i.e. there are no social security contributions to be paid by either the employer or the employee. Meal vouchers are fully deductible as an operating expense.

Tax exemption also remains conditional on the employer not having a company canteen.

The Up Luxembourg card can only be used in Luxembourg. Each country has its own legislation on extra-legal benefits. The granting of the Up Luxembourg card is subject to Luxembourg legislation.

The number of meal vouchers awarded to an employee remains linked to the number of days actually worked. In practice, many employers allocate a fixed number of vouchers per month (generally 18 vouchers per month, 12 times a year, or 20 vouchers per month, 11 times a year).

In practice, and for reasons of administrative simplification, it has been agreed to allocate a fixed number of vouchers per month and per person, according to the following calculation:
52 weeks x 5 working days
= 260 working days
- 26 vacation days
- 11 public holidays
- 5 flat-rate days

= 218 luncheon vouchers per year
or 18 luncheon vouchers per month

Meal vouchers are an extra-legal benefit. It is a way for employers to motivate their employees by offering them additional purchasing power. Meal vouchers are also tax-efficient. Meal vouchers can only be used to pay for a meal or purchase food products.

Meal vouchers can only be used in restaurants or to buy food products.

The maximum deductible amount for meal vouchers is €15. It should be noted that the employer is free to adjust or not the amount of his contribution. The value of the meal voucher is always made up of a contribution from the employer and a contribution from the employee:
The employer's contribution is a maximum of €12.20.
The employee's contribution is at least €2.80.

The employer's contribution to the financing of the meal voucher does not give rise to taxation if the employee contributes €2.80 per meal voucher (unchanged from the previous legislation) and if the face value of the meal voucher does not exceed €15.00 (instead of €10.80 previously).

In principle, meal vouchers are not compulsory, except under certain collective bargaining agreements. The value and conditions associated with meal vouchers are chosen by the employer. The conditions are set out in an industry or company collective agreement (CC), or in an individual employment contract.

Anyone whose employment contract mentions the granting of meal vouchers is entitled to receive them. The same applies to certain categories of workers, such as :

Student jobs
Trainees paid under an employment contract
Teleworkers
Employees with special status
Volunteers, who by definition are unpaid and not bound by an employment contract, are not entitled to this extra-legal benefit.

There are two ways to order Up Luxembourg meal vouchers:

- Through your trustee, accountant, social secretariat... simply ask them to order luncheon vouchers from Up Luxembourg. Contact your social secretariat for more information.
- Via your Up Luxembourg customer area: you can order your luncheon vouchers yourself via your customer area.

All companies, including those with one or more employees and where the manager is the sole employee, are eligible for meal vouchers.

Meal vouchers are awarded on the basis of the number of days worked, provided the employee has worked a minimum of 4 hours during that day. In many companies, meal vouchers are allocated on the basis of the number of hours worked in relation to full-time work. This decision remains at the discretion of the employer.

Retroactive allocation of meal vouchers is permitted.
If too many or too few luncheon vouchers have been allocated from one month to the next, this can be rectified the following month.
If meal vouchers are a new benefit for your employee that you introduce during the year. It is possible to grant meal vouchers retroactively for previous months. However, it is necessary to remain within the calendar year for the regularization of meal vouchers, otherwise there may be problems from a tax point of view.

You can become an Up Luxembourg customer by contacting offer@luxembourg.lu.