The meal voucher exceptionally increased to CZK 180

An exceptional increase has been made to meal vouchers, raising them to CZK 180.

The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs is issuing a decree (No 237/2022) that will make an exceptional increase in the optimal meal allowance from the perspective of tax deductibility on the employer’s side to CZK 142. The Income Tax Act allows 70% of the meal allowance (up to a maximum of 55% of the value of the meal voucher) to be claimed as a tax-deductible expense.

Maximum tax-deductible expense: 0.7 x 142 = CZK 99.40

Meal voucher value: 99.40 / 0.55 = CZK 180.73

This means that the value of a meal voucher at which you as an employer can claim the maximum amount as a tax expense is now CZK 180 (with a 55% employer contribution).

For many companies, in these challenging times meal vouchers offer one way of boosting employees’ net income in the face of stretched budgets. On the employee side, they are always fully exempt from taxes, social security and health insurance at (almost) any amount – even CZK 200. The average price of lunch has risen by 10.1% year on year and went up by as much as 18.4% between 2020 and 2022; for this reason, we recommend that you also increase the face value of the meal vouchers you order.

Average lunch spend June 2020-2022 (restaurants + delivery services)

Average price of lunch versus the optimal amount of a tax-efficient meal voucher (2015-2022)