Two new Grand-Ducal Regulations on meal vouchers were published on 27 September 2023 (Mémorial A621 and Mémorial A622 of the Official Gazette).

These two new Grand-Ducal Regulations act to amend the basic Regulations governing the meal voucher system further to the announcement of the Minister of Finance last June on the new system to be put in place.

The key changes are as follows:

• The Meal vouchers are set to be digitised, whereby it is specified that " the awarding of meal vouchers in paper form by the employer as well as the issue of such (paper) meal vouchers by the issuers will remain permitted until 31 December 2024.»;

• The criteria subject to which meal vouchers may be used are updated, i.e. the scope of application is broadened to include the purchase of food items and the number of meal vouchers that may be used will be limited to 5 per day;

• The value of a meal voucher will be 15 euros starting from the 2024 tax year. The maximum exemption value is set to go up to 12.20 euros, with the 2.80 euro personal contribution from the employee remaining unchanged. As the employees’ personal contribution remains unaffected, employers will be free to increase their contribution towards the meal vouchers up to the face value of 15 euros, albeit without being under any obligation to do so. There is no mention of such an obligation incumbent on the employer.

These new provisions will take effect on 1^st January 2024.