Meals for employees with relief from ZUS – That is what to pay attention to

1 September 2023 entered into force Regulation amending the Regulation on detailed rules for determining the basis for the assessment of pension contributions. The most crucial change resulting from this is the determination of the fresh value of meals made available by the employer to employees for consumption and the values received by employees of vouchers, vouchers and pre-paid cards entitling to acquisition only meals in catering or commercial establishments, which does not constitute a basis for the assessment of social safety contributions.

Change in the value of benefits exempted from ZUS

As amended, as from 1 September 2023, the contribution base does not constitute the value of meals made available to workers for consumption financed by the employer without entitlement to the equivalent and the value of vouchers, vouchers, coupons and pre-paid cards received by employees entitling to acquisition only meals in catering or commercial establishments – up to a monthly amount of PLN 450.

To date, the contribution base did not represent the value of the above benefits up to the amount not exceeding PLN 300 per month. This means an increase in the value of benefits without ZUS by PLN 150 per month.

Doubts about exempt benefits

It turns out that the application of the ZUS exemption is not that simple. At the very beginning of the fresh rules, 1 of the entrepreneurs – the contributors asked the Social safety Office to dispel doubts about the anticipation to benefit from the exemption from the work to charge contributions from pre-paid employees of cards entitled to acquisition only a meal or to acquisition food products enabling the preparation of a meal on their own (workers cannot pay for alcohol, chemistry, cigarettes, etc.). The entrepreneur thought that cards issued to employees in this way could be released from the Social safety Office up to PLN 450 per month.

However, it turns out that the intent of the cards issued (bons, talons) is important. The Social Insurance Institution indicated that a meal should be understood ready-made or processed food products suitable for direct consumption.The contribution base shall not include the values received by the employees of vouchers, vouchers, coupons and pre-paid cards which technically enable the acquisition of not only prepared meals or processed food products, but provided that,that the amount is spent only and only for the acquisition of meals or processed food products.It appears so appropriate to state that, for the purposes of benefiting from an exemption of up to PLN 450, both the payer and the individual to whom the amounts on the cards or vouchers have been transferred should have documentary evidence of the expenditure incurred solely for meals or processed food products.

ZUS called Judgment of the ultimate Court of 24 September 2015 (Event I UK 205/15), in which the ultimate Court stressed that in the contribution regulation, the legislator did not supply a definition of the legal word ‘nutrition’, which does not mean that the absence of that definition does not justify the acceptance that the ‘nutrition’ is identical to the food product. On the another hand, a food product means, among others, groats, pastas, yeasts and akin products which are not suitable for direct consumption without treatment – so not all food can be treated as a meal.

ZUS besides stressed that since the exclusion of a certain category of gross from the contribution base is an exception, alternatively than a rule, cannot be applied to this extension interpretation. Therefore, it is incorrect to presume that the pre-paid cards of employees entitled to acquisition meals or products on their own to prepare meals are excluded from the contribution base. The acquisition by the worker of products specified as natural meat or potatoes, from which he will later prepare a meal, must not consequence in the value of these purchases financed from the prepaid card received by the worker from the employer being excluded from the basis of the assessment of the ZUS contributions.

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Daniel Głogowski

Expert in his field – Publicist, author and social activist. The first articles were published in 1999 for global publishers. For more than 30 years, he has gained his experience through cooperation with the largest editorial offices. In his articles, he seeks to address controversial topics and present first viewpoints that allowed for a deeper knowing of the issues discussed.