Portugal meal allowance in 2026

A meal allowance (subsídio de alimentação, and in the tax code subsídio de refeição) is a daily amount for a day you actually work. It is not a slice of your salary, and it is not part of the €920 mainland minimum wage. Portaria n.º 51-B/2026/1, of 30 January, updates the public-administration allowance to €6.15 per full work day, with effect from 1 January 2026, and revokes Portaria n.º 107-A/2023. Private payroll uses that public figure as the tax and social-security reference, even when the private employer pays a different daily rate.

Private employers are not legally forced to pay a meal allowance. The Labour Code does not create one the way article 264 creates a holiday subsidy. You receive it when the employment contract, a collective agreement, or an established practice of the employer says so. Once it is paid, the tax and contribution rules below apply whether or not the employer wanted them. The line on the slip is explained in the payslip guide.

Cash limit and card limit

For IRS and for social security, the daily amount is ignored up to the public-sector cash figure when it is paid in cash. From 1 January 2026 that figure is €6.15. When the same allowance is paid as a meal card or voucher, the ignored amount is the cash figure plus 70%. €6.15 × 1.70 = €10.455. People often write €10.46. The legal product used on this page is €10.455. Multiplying the rounded €10.46 by the days of the month is a different number, eleven cents higher over 22 days (€10.46 × 22 = €230.12, against €10.455 × 22 = €230.01). Keep €10.455 for the arithmetic, and let payroll round the cent.

The excess over the limit that matches the payment method is category A income (employment income). It enters the social-security base, so both the worker's 11% and the employer's 23.75% apply to that excess, in the general regime. The exempt portion stays outside both. A card is not 'tax free without a ceiling'. It has a higher ceiling. Details of the 11% and the 23.75% are in the employee social security guide.

Days that do not earn the allowance

The ordinary rule pays the allowance for days actually worked, not for weekends, public holidays or vacation days. A month of holiday therefore carries a smaller meal line even if a holiday subsidy appears on the same slip. If the employer also provides the meal on a day you work, you cannot stack a full exempt allowance on top of that meal. This page does not invent a residual euro amount for the 'meal already provided' case. If that is your situation, read the contract and the collective agreement rather than assuming the full €6.15 is still ignored.

Twenty-two days, four different daily rates

All four rows assume 22 days actually worked, no meal provided by the employer, and no subsidy mixed into the meal line. 'Gross' here means the allowance paid, before you ask how much of it is ignored.

Cash at €7.50: the gross allowance is 22 × €7.50 = €165.00. The exempt part is 22 × €6.15 = €135.30. The taxable part is €165.00 − €135.30 = €29.70, which is also 22 × (€7.50 − €6.15) = 22 × €1.35. That €29.70 is the piece that faces IRS withholding and social security. Employee social security on it is €29.70 × 0.11 = €3.267. Employer social security is €29.70 × 0.2375 = €7.05375. Payroll will round those products to the cent. This page does not pretend the rounded cent is a quoted assessment.

Card at €7.50: €7.50 is below €10.455, so the full €165.00 is exempt. The same €7.50 paid in cash was partly taxable. The payment method is the difference, not the worker's tax band. Card at €11.00: the exempt slice is €10.455 a day, and the taxable slice is €11.00 − €10.455 = €0.545 a day. Over 22 days the taxable piece is 22 × €0.545 = €11.99, and the exempt piece is €230.01. Do not replace €10.455 with €10.46 and then expect the cents to match this table.

Not part of the €920 minimum

The mainland guaranteed minimum monthly pay discussed for 2026 is €920 of remuneration. Article 260 of the Labour Code treats the meal allowance like a cost reimbursement for the purpose of what counts as remuneration, with the same style of exception as travel costs. You cannot relabel €120 of meal allowance as if it filled a base that was set below €920. A lawful base of €920 plus a meal allowance is a base of €920 plus a meal allowance. The minimum wage guide is the page for the floor. This page only refuses the mix-up.

The exempt meal amount is also a poor thing to drop into the annual IRS scale as if it were taxable salary. The gross-to-net guide shows what the calculator annualises. Put the taxable excess, not the exempt days, on the income side. Put the whole allowance on the 'did the worker receive it' side when you are checking the contract.

What the SalarioBox meal field actually does

The employee calculator adds the meal amount you type back onto the estimate, up to a simplified cap of €6 × 22 = €132. It does not split cash from card. It does not apply €6.15, and it does not apply €10.455. An amount above €132 is left out of the estimate. It is not run through the taxable-excess arithmetic on this page. So €165 of cash, which legally contains €29.70 of taxable pay, is not modelled as €135.30 exempt plus €29.70 taxed. The tool keeps €132 and ignores the rest. A card payment of €165, which can be fully exempt because €7.50 is under €10.455, is also cut at €132. The field is a net add-on with a rough lid, not a meal-allowance engine.

• No contract, no collective agreement, and no established practice: a private employer need not pay the allowance at all.
• Cash: ignored up to €6.15 a worked day. 22 days at the limit = €135.30 exempt.
• Card or voucher: ignored up to €10.455 a worked day. €7.50 on a card is fully inside that limit.
• Excess: category A, and inside the 11% / 23.75% base.
• Weekends, holidays, vacation, and a meal the employer already provided: do not assume a full exempt day.