Explanation About Meal Cards: Nothing Has Changed

Meal cards, in which hundreds of thousands of employees in our country exercise their right to eat, came to the fore with important news today. According to the news shared by Noyan Doğan from Hürriyet, the use of meal cards in grocery shopping will no longer take place with the regulation that came into effect as of December 1 (according to the inferences made from the statement).

Taking the statement made by the SGK as a source, Doğan’s article created a great confusion, and a new statement came from Öner Piyade, President of the Meal Cards Association, who spoke to AA. infantry,”Nothing has changed in meal cards.” he declared.

“The new legislation does not bring a different regulation than the current legislation”

“Nothing has changed in the meal cards. The fact that the use of meal cards in restaurants and markets other than meals and ready-to-eat food is not subject to tax exemption is regulated in the Tax Procedure Law General Communiqué no. 382, ​​which was published in 2008 and is still in effect. In this context, the new legislation on meal wages given to employees as of December 1, 2022 does not bring a different regulation from the current legislation.

In fact, Doğan’s statements were misunderstood: He was talking about how grocery shopping with meal cards would affect the employer.

In his article, Noyan Doğan states that employers and employees’ food expenditures exemption from insurance premium He was talking about his condition. “As of December 1, employees will only use this money on their cards for food and will not be able to use them for grocery shopping or any other reason. If he uses it, the employer will not be able to exempt the amount he paid from the insurance premium and will pay the tax.The ‘if he uses’ statement in the ” section shows that meal cards will not be completely ‘invalid’ in grocery stores…

In the article, it was stated that if the grocery shopping is done with a meal card, the employer will be prevented from excluding the price paid by the employee from the insurance premium. So yes, employees will be able to shop with their meal card, but this shopping is the employer’s responsibility. benefit from tax exemptions.

Employers are currently eligible for government-issued monthly 1.122 TL exception they can benefit. The portion exceeding this amount in meal cards is taxed by the state. In case of grocery shopping with a meal card taxable expenditure will increase.

After the article in question, meal cards became the agenda on social media: