{"id":4537,"date":"2026-01-27T16:42:51","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T16:42:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nominaurea.pt\/?p=4537"},"modified":"2026-01-27T16:50:46","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T16:50:46","slug":"meal-allowance-in-portugal-2026-updates-and-impact-for-employees-and-employers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nominaurea.pt\/en\/noticias\/meal-allowance-in-portugal-2026-updates-and-impact-for-employees-and-employers\/","title":{"rendered":"Meal Allowance in Portugal \u2014 2026: Updates and Impact for Employees and Employers"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What is the Meal Allowance?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The meal allowance offered by employers to employees compensates for daily meal costs on days worked. It may be paid in cash or through a meal card\/voucher.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Reference Values for 2026<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>For tax purposes in 2026, the daily reference value for meal allowance paid in cash is <strong>\u20ac6.15<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>For meal card payments, the daily tax-free threshold increases to <strong>\u20ac10.46<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Tax Exemption Rules<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>In Portugal, the meal allowance is exempt from income tax (IRS) and social security contributions when it does not exceed the legal limits:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Cash payment:<\/strong> exempt up to <strong>\u20ac6.15 per working day<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Meal card:<\/strong> exempt up to <strong>\u20ac10.46 per working day<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These thresholds apply only to days worked.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Implications for Employees and Employers<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Receiving meal allowance via meal card can be more beneficial for employees due to the higher tax-exempt ceiling. Employers and payroll team must ensure compliance with legal thresholds to optimize tax outcomes and avoid additional liabilities.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>In 2026, meal allowance remains a significant part of total compensation in Portugal, with updated tax-free limits that favour meal card payments. Employees, employers and chartered accountants alike should stay informed of these rules for effective payroll and HR practices.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>How <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nominaurea.pt\/en\/\">Nominaurea<\/a> Can Help<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nominaurea.pt\/en\/\">Nominaurea<\/a> has extensive experience in labour, tax and human resources consultancy and can help to:<\/p>\n<p>\u2705 Correctly interpret and apply the rules on meal allowances in 2026;<br \/>\n\u2705 Set up remuneration and benefits policies in compliance with the Portuguese Labour Code and tax legislation.<\/p>\n<p>\u2705 Optimise payroll processes, meal cards and tax-efficient benefits;<br \/>\n\u2705 Provide support in collective bargaining and the review of collective labour agreements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is the Meal Allowance? The meal allowance offered by employers to employees compensates for daily meal costs on days worked. It may be paid in cash or through a meal card\/voucher. Reference Values for 2026 For tax purposes in 2026, the daily reference value for meal allowance paid in cash is \u20ac6.15. For meal [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3755,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-publications"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nominaurea.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nominaurea.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nominaurea.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nominaurea.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nominaurea.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4537"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nominaurea.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4539,"href":"https:\/\/www.nominaurea.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4537\/revisions\/4539"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nominaurea.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nominaurea.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nominaurea.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nominaurea.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}