Meal vouchers in 2026: the 45 lei cap, how they are granted and taxed

The meal voucher (tichetul de masă) remains one of the most widely used non-salary benefits in Romania — useful because it does not enter the calculation base for all social contributions, so more of it reaches the employee than an equivalent rise in gross pay. In 2026 there are a few concrete rules that an owner or HR manager of an SME needs to know: the 45 lei cap, the rule that vouchers follow the days actually worked, and the way they are taxed. We take them one at a time.

The maximum value: 45 lei, a cap and not an obligation

The maximum nominal value of a meal voucher is 45 lei per day worked (Legea 165/2018, art. 14), a cap applicable to entitlements from November 2025 onwards. Under Legea 201/2025 (art. II), the value applies, by derogation from the usual indexation, for the first half of 2026 and also for July, August and September 2026. For the period after September 2026 the maximum is set by the twice-yearly indexation order; on 21 September 2026 the Ministry of Labour put a draft order for the second half of 2026 out for public consultation. Check the value in the order as published before setting it in payroll.

It is worth stressing: 45 lei is a legal cap, not a mandatory amount. The employer decides whether to grant vouchers and at what value — it can set any amount up to this maximum (for example 30, 40 or 45 lei), depending on its budget and internal benefits policy. The law obliges no company to grant meal vouchers, nor to use the maximum value.

The mechanism behind it: Legea 165/2018 sets a reference value that is indexed twice a year, by joint order of the minister of finance and the minister of labour, in line with the evolution of food prices. The 45 lei cap did not come from indexation: Legea 201/2025 set it directly, by amending art. 14 of Legea 165/2018, up from the previous level of roughly 40.18 lei, which earlier indexations had produced. Because it is re-indexed periodically, the value may change again during the year — always check the updated cap before setting it in payroll.

The legal framework in brief

• Legea 165/2018 — governs meal vouchers (and the other voucher types): who may grant them, how, the reference value and the indexation.
• The Fiscal Code (Codul fiscal) — sets the tax treatment: which withholdings apply to vouchers.
• The joint order of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Labour (Ordinul comun MF/MMSS) updating the cap — it puts the twice-yearly indexation into practice and fixes the maximum value for the semester concerned (for July to September 2026 the 45 lei in the statute applies, by derogation).

The basic rule: one voucher per day actually worked

The number of vouchers granted in a month may not exceed the number of days actually worked by the employee in that month. One voucher corresponds to one working day — no vouchers are granted for days on which the employee did not perform work.

Concretely, no vouchers are granted for:

• days of annual leave;
• days of sick leave (temporary incapacity for work);
• public holidays and days off;
• days of delegation or secondment on which the employee receives a diurnă (the voucher is not cumulated with the daily allowance for the same day);
• any absence, whatever the reason.

For that reason, for an employee on a normal schedule the monthly number of vouchers varies from month to month — depending on how many working days the month has and how many days the employee was actually away. Done by hand from the time records, this calculation is one of the frequent sources of payroll errors.

In practice the issuer transfers the vouchers by the month’s working days, and the difference from the days actually worked is regularised — see “Vouchers granted in excess” below.

How they are taxed in 2026 and the impact on net pay

From a tax point of view, meal vouchers bear two withholdings in 2026:

• the health insurance contribution (CASS) of 10%, on the gross value;
• income tax of 10%, on the value left after CASS (see the example below).

Neither CAS (the pension contribution, 25%) nor the work insurance contribution owed by the employer applies. In practice, vouchers are “cheaper” in tax terms than equivalent gross salary precisely because they avoid CAS.

The combined effect is a total withholding of roughly 19% of the nominal value of the vouchers. The vouchers are loaded in full onto the card and the tax and CASS are withheld through payroll, so the net value left to the employee is about 81% of the nominal one.

A worked example

Suppose an employee with 21 days actually worked in a month, receiving vouchers at the maximum value of 45 lei/day:

• Nominal value of the vouchers: 21 × 45 = 945 lei
• CASS (10% of 945): 94.50 lei
• Income tax: 10% × (945 − 94.50) = 85.05 lei
• Total withholdings: 179.55 lei
• Net value left from the vouchers: 765.45 lei

Income tax is not calculated on the full 945 lei: its base is gross income minus the mandatory social contributions owed, so here 945 − 94.50 (Fiscal Code, art. 78(2)(a)). The withholdings on vouchers add to those on the salary itself and appear on the payslip as separate lines. The calculation is for an employee with no personal deduction (on low salaries the personal deduction lowers the tax and changes the figures); in that case the practical rule is simple: roughly 81% of the nominal value of the vouchers effectively stays with the employee. Meal vouchers sit outside the monthly cap on other non-salary benefits, with their own taxes (see non-salary benefits in 2026); gift vouchers have their own cap and their own occasions (gifts and gift vouchers for employees).

Vouchers granted in excess: how to regularise them and the tax consequences

Differences between the vouchers received and the days worked appear almost every month, and the reason is the mechanism written into the law: the issuer transfers the value of the vouchers each month according to the number of working days in the month for which the transfer is made (Legea 165/2018, art. 12(1)), not according to the days actually worked. Absences — a sick-leave spell, a paid day off, a trip with a daily allowance — reduce the days worked but not the transfer. An employee may use in a month at most as many vouchers as the days worked (art. 12(2)), and the difference is vouchers that are not due.

What the law says about giving them back

• The employee returns them. At the end of each month and when the contract ends, the employee returns to the employer the value of the vouchers that were not due (art. 12(3)). If they have already been spent, the employee pays their value to the employer (implementing norms, HG 1045/2018, art. 17(1) and (4)).
• Vouchers not due but not yet spent. The employer gives the issuer the necessary details, and the issuer returns the value to the employer under the contract between them (norms, art. 17(2)).
• Vouchers spent, with the employee not paying. The norms provide a solution inside the voucher mechanism: for the following month, the employer grants the number of working days in that month minus the vouchers not due from the previous month (art. 17(5)). Example: a month has 22 working days and the employee was on sick leave for 3 of them, so 3 vouchers are not due. If they were spent and are not paid back, in the following month, with 21 working days, the employee receives 21 − 3 = 18 vouchers.

Do not deduct from pay on your own

The Labour Code allows no deduction from pay outside the cases and conditions set by law (art. 169(1)), and deductions for damages require a final court judgment (art. 169(2)). The norms to Legea 165/2018 provide no deduction from pay for meal vouchers that were not due — unlike crèche vouchers, where the employer may recover from the employee’s pay (art. 13(2)) — so the route provided is the one above, not a deduction from the payroll statement. If the employee refuses to give the value back, the general basis remains art. 256 of the Labour Code: whoever has received an amount from the employer that was not owed must return it (paragraph (1)), and whoever has received goods that were not due and can no longer be returned in kind — as with vouchers already spent — bears their value (paragraph (2)). The last resort is a court claim. One point stays open to argument: a deduction based on the employee’s written agreement (the payment undertaking). For meal vouchers the law does not expressly provide for it, so do not use it without legal advice, and if the employee does not consent, do not deduct. The general rules on deductions, including the payment undertaking and the caps, are in deductions from pay.

The steps, in practice

1. Compare at month-end the vouchers handed out with the days worked in the time records. Not counted as days worked: annual leave, sick leave, public holidays and paid days off, delegation with a daily allowance, absences (norms, art. 10(1)).
2. Tell the employee in writing how many vouchers were not due and what they are worth.
3. Recover the difference. The employee pays the value of the vouchers not due that have been spent; if they have not been used yet, the employer sends the issuer the details needed for the value to be returned to it.
4. If that is not possible, deduct from the following month, under the rule above (art. 17(5)).
5. Keep the evidence. For value vouchers on an electronic medium, the norms contain a form: the itemised statement of vouchers returned by employees to employers, signed by the employee and by the person the employer has authorised (annex no. 6).

The fine: who it is aimed at

An employee using more meal vouchers than the days worked is a contravention (Legea 165/2018, art. 28(1)(i) and (2)(a)), punished with 0.5 penalty points. One penalty point equals the gross national minimum basic salary (art. 28(8)), so, with the minimum salary of 4,325 lei in force from 1 July 2026, the fine is 2,162.50 lei. Finding the contravention falls to the authorised control staff of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Labour (art. 29). The punishable act is the employee’s; for the employer, what is at stake is the unrecovered amount and its tax treatment.

Tax consequences

The Fiscal Code does not say expressly what happens to vouchers that were not due. What follows is a reading of the text, not an official position of ANAF or the Ministry of Finance; for your case, confirm with your accountant or ask ANAF for clarification.

• Vouchers granted in accordance with the law. The favourable treatment — 10% income tax and 10% CASS, with no CAS and no CAM — is tied in the Fiscal Code to the wording “granted in accordance with the law” (art. 142(r), art. 157(1)(ț) and (2), art. 220⁴(2)). On that wording, in our reading, vouchers that were not due do not fit it.
• The value comes back to the employer (repayment, deduction from the following month, refund from the issuer). How the income tax and CASS already calculated on that portion are treated — in the payroll of the current month or by correcting a month that has already been reported — is settled with your accountant, on the facts of the case.
• You waive the money. The Fiscal Code expressly lists “cancellation of a claim of the employer against the employee” among salary income in kind (art. 76(3)(d)). If you waive the value of vouchers that were not due, it would be treated as ordinary salary income: 10% income tax, 25% CAS and 10% CASS for the employee, plus 2.25% CAM borne by the company. The text does not speak of vouchers that were not due as such, so this is the likely interpretation, not a confirmed one; confirm with your accountant or ask ANAF for clarification before you waive.
• Not recovered, but not waived. As long as you have neither recovered the amount nor waived it, the claim remains; how it appears for tax purposes until it is recovered is settled with your accountant.
• Profit tax. Deducting the cost of meal vouchers is also conditional on the “granted in accordance with the law” wording (art. 25(3)(c)); how an unrecovered amount is treated is something to settle with your accountant.

Who is eligible

Any employee with an individual employment contract may receive vouchers, at the employer where they hold their main job. The form of work organisation makes no difference:

• part-time — employees on a partial schedule are eligible; the vouchers are still granted for days actually worked;
• remote and hybrid — teleworking does not change the entitlement to vouchers; what counts is the work performed, not the place it is performed from.

Format: electronic only

Meal vouchers, like all value vouchers, are issued exclusively on an electronic medium (Legea 165/2018, art. 1(2)); paper vouchers can no longer be issued. The law defines an electronic medium as any physical device — a card, for instance — or virtual instrument — an app, for instance — that the holder can use to carry out operations with the vouchers (art. 1(3)). The 10% income tax and the 10% CASS apply to the value of the vouchers whichever electronic medium is used.

Frequently asked questions

Can I deduct excess meal vouchers from an employee’s pay?

Not on your own initiative. The Labour Code allows deductions from pay only in the cases and conditions set by law (art. 169(1)), and the norms to Legea 165/2018 provide no deduction for meal vouchers that were not due; they offer a different mechanism: the employee gives them back and, if that has not happened, you subtract the vouchers that were not due from the number granted the following month (art. 17(5)). A deduction based on the employee’s written agreement remains open to argument — take legal advice first (deductions from pay explains the payment undertaking). If even that does not settle it, the value can be claimed in court as an amount received without being owed or, for vouchers already spent, as goods received without entitlement that can no longer be returned in kind (art. 256(1) and (2) of the Labour Code). And if you waive the money, the likely tax treatment is taxable salary income, with the related contributions (see “Tax consequences” above); confirm with your accountant.

How Workly helps

The sensitive part with vouchers is not the tax rate itself, but the correct link between time records and payroll: how many days each employee actually worked, which days were leave or sick leave and, consequently, how many vouchers they are due. Done manually, this is where most mistakes appear.

Workly’s time-tracking and payroll module links days actually worked to the number of vouchers automatically, applies the income tax and CASS withholdings in the salary calculation, and reflects everything consistently in the SAGA-format export, the basis for Declaration 112. The calculation is deterministic — the same inputs always produce the same result, with no interpretation and no manual corrections from one month to the next. And the internal assistant Modi answers questions about your own data (leave balance, schedule, attendance) deterministically, not through a language model that could “invent” an answer.

---

Informational article, accurate at the date of publication. It is not tax or legal advice, and caps and rates may change through indexation or new legislation. Always check the value and the rules in force at source (the Fiscal Code, Legea 165/2018, the joint MF/MMSS order) or consult a specialist.