Meal allowance increase in Slovakia: what is changing for employees and self-employed persons from June 2023 (proposal)

The Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family of the Slovak Republic recently published a draft measure on meal allowance amounts (LP/2023/209) on the slov-lex.sk portal. This draft will go through the inter-ministerial comment procedure.

The new meal allowance amounts are expected to apply from 1 June 2023. Under the draft measure, the meal allowance amounts are being increased in view of rising prices of meals and non-alcoholic beverages in restaurant catering.

Specifically, the amounts are increasing:

• to €7.30 for the time band of 5 to 12 hours,
• €10.90 for the time band of over 12 hours up to 18 hours,
• €16.40 for the time band of over 18 hours.

Previously, from 1 January 2023, the meal allowance amounts were:

• €6.80 for the time band of 5 to 12 hours,
• €10.10 for the time band of over 12 hours up to 18 hours,
• €15.30 for the time band of over 18 hours.

Under Section 8(1) of Act No. 283/2002 Coll. on Travel Allowances, the meal allowance amounts were increased because the condition for increasing them was met. This increase mechanism was triggered in line with the statistical data for January 2023. In that month, the monthly cumulative index of prices of meals and non-alcoholic beverages in restaurant catering in Slovakia stood at 107.0, which means an increase of 7.0 percentage points compared with the base. The base is the relevant calendar month that was used to adjust the meal allowance amounts in the last measure.

Under the draft law concerning meal allowances, employers will be obliged to provide employees with a meal allowance of at least 55% of the price of a meal, up to 55% of the meal allowance for a business trip lasting 5 to 12 hours. This would mean an increase from €3.74 to €4.02 per meal.

Employers who provide meals to employees through a legal entity or an individual acting as a meal service intermediary would express the meal allowance as the value of a meal voucher (gastrolístok), and this should be at least 75% of the meal allowance for a business trip lasting 5 to 12 hours. With the proposed amount of €7.30, the new minimum value of a meal voucher would be €5.48.

For employers who provide meal vouchers or a financial meal allowance, the minimum allowance should rise from €2.81 to €3.02 (55% of €5.48). It should be noted that both meal vouchers and the financial meal allowance must be provided to employees in advance, so that they have them available on the very first working day. For this reason, if the draft is approved, the changes will need to be implemented as early as May 2023.

Self-employed persons (SZČO), such as sole traders, who deduct actual, documented expenses for tax purposes will be able to include in their expenses, for each day worked, a meal allowance equal to 55% of the meal allowance for a business trip lasting 5 to 12 hours. After the planned increase, self-employed persons could claim €4.02 per day worked as an expense from 1 June 2023. This represents an increase of €0.28 a day.