Meal vouchers in Europe Meal voucher glossary
Meal voucher glossary
Every European country calls the meal voucher something different, and the local word usually implies a different rule set rather than a translation. A buono pasto is not a Sachbezug with an Italian name. This page maps the national terms to what they actually mean, and defines the payment vocabulary that sits underneath all of them.
National terms
Buono pasto (Italy)
The Italian meal voucher. Issuing is restricted to companies on the ministry register, and the law requires a contract between the issuing company and every accepting merchant. Exempt to 10 EUR a day in electronic form in 2026, 4 EUR on paper. See the Italian rules.
Titre-restaurant (France)
The French meal voucher. Issuers hold an accreditation from the CNTR, merchants are accredited by the same body, and the acceptance network is shared across issuers rather than owned by each one. Spending is capped at 25 EUR a day. Paper stops being usable at the end of February 2027. See the French rules.
Maaltijdcheque (Belgium)
The Belgian meal voucher, electronic only since 2016. Worth up to 10 EUR per working day from 2026, of which the employer may fund at most 8.91 EUR, leaving a mandatory employee contribution. Issuers are recognised by the FOD Economie. See the Belgian rules.
Ticket restaurante (Spain)
The Spanish meal benefit, exempt from personal income tax to 11 EUR per working day, and 9 EUR in the Basque Country. There is no register of issuers, and the format is free: paper, card or app. See the Spanish rules.
Subsidio de refeicao (Portugal)
The Portuguese meal allowance. Distinctive because the exempt amount depends on how it is paid: 6.15 EUR a day in cash, 10.46 EUR a day on a meal card, with the card figure derived from the public sector base plus 70 percent. See the Portuguese rules.
Essenszuschuss and Sachbezug (Germany)
Two separate German rules rather than one voucher. The meal subsidy lets an employer fund up to 7.67 EUR per working day in 2026. The benefit in kind allowance permits 50 EUR a month on a restricted card for other purposes. Different legal bases, usable together. There is no register of issuers. See the German rules.
Payment terms
Tichete de masa (Romania)
The Romanian meal voucher, governed by law 165/2018. Electronic only since 2023, worth up to 45 lei a day, and issued solely by units authorised by the Ministry of Finance. It attracts income tax and a health contribution but stays outside the base for pension and other social contributions, which is where its value to an employer sits. See Romania.
SZEP card (Hungary)
A Hungarian recreation card covering accommodation, catering and leisure, issued by banks under a regulated scheme. It is not a meal voucher, though employers use it for meals. The annual limit is 570 000 forint, split between a general pocket and an Active Hungarians pocket that cannot be swapped. See Hungary.
Lounasetu (Finland)
The Finnish lunch benefit. Its taxable value is 75 percent of the nominal value loaded, so the exemption is the remaining quarter, and it applies only while the taxable value sits between the annual floor and ceiling. That makes the figure an employer loads different from either published limit. See Finland.
Cheque-repas (Luxembourg)
The Luxembourg meal voucher, digital only since 2025 and worth 15 euro at face value. The employee contributes 2.80 euro of that, and an employer who covers the whole amount turns that share into a taxable benefit. Usable with an affiliated merchant established in Luxembourg. See Luxembourg.
National quota (Bulgaria)
A ceiling on the whole scheme rather than on the individual benefit. The Bulgarian state sets an annual amount in the budget act and divides it among licensed operators, so an employer cannot obtain vouchers outside somebody's allocation. No other market covered here caps the category this way. See Bulgaria.
Merchant category code, or MCC
A four digit code describing what kind of business a merchant is, assigned when the merchant is onboarded by its acquirer and carried in every authorisation. Restaurants are 5812, fast food 5814, supermarkets 5411, bakeries 5462. It is the coarse instrument most schemes use to keep a card on food.
Merchant identifier
A field identifying one specific merchant rather than a type of merchant. It matters wherever the law ties the benefit to merchants that have a contract with the issuer, because a category code cannot tell a contracted bakery from any other bakery.
Open loop and closed loop
An open loop card runs on an international card network and is accepted wherever that network reaches, subject to whatever restrictions the issuer applies. A closed loop instrument is accepted only within a network the issuer built and controls. Meal vouchers exist in both forms and in a mixed form, which is covered in open loop or closed loop.
Three party and four party
A three party arrangement has the issuer contracting merchants directly and settling with them outside the card networks. A four party arrangement adds the acquirer and the network between issuer and merchant, which is how an ordinary card payment works. Several European voucher schemes run both at once, for different acceptance channels.
Limited network exclusion
A carve out in European payment services rules for instruments usable only within a limited network or for a very limited range of goods. It is one of the reasons meal vouchers have historically sat outside the rules that govern ordinary payment instruments. The revised rules keep the exclusion but narrow it to a single limited network.
Interchange exemption
The provision that keeps meal vouchers outside interchange caps. It covers instruments valid in a single member state, provided at the request of an employer or public body, regulated by a national authority for a social or tax purpose, and usable at suppliers holding a commercial agreement with the issuer. That last condition is the legal reason affiliated merchant networks exist.
Affiliated merchant, or convenzionato
A merchant that has signed an agreement with a voucher issuer, as distinct from one that merely accepts cards. In Italy the agreement has to set out the discount granted to the issuer, the payment term, and a window of at least six months after voucher expiry in which the merchant can claim payment.
Shared authorisation
An arrangement where the issuing platform passes each authorisation request to the programme owner, with the merchant category code and merchant identifier attached, and the owner answers approve or decline against its own rules. Funds stay held on the platform side. It is how a programme applies an affiliated merchant list without duplicating it into a card platform.
Collateral
An amount held against settlement risk with the card network, separate from the money employees spend, sized on transaction volume and growing with it. Distinct from the programme balance, which is the funded value on the cards.
Terms that are often confused
| Not the same | The difference |
|---|---|
| Meal voucher and expense card | A voucher decides before the payment. An expense card checks receipts afterwards |
| Category code and merchant identifier | One says what kind of business, the other says which business |
| Issuing and reimbursement | Reimbursing an employee for spending on a personal card is a different product under different rules, and does not require accreditation |
| Programme balance and collateral | One is what employees spend, the other is held against network settlement risk |
| Register and accreditation | A register lists who may issue. Accreditation, in France, lists which merchants may accept |
For the mechanics behind these terms, see how a meal voucher card works.