Meal vouchers in Bulgaria are electronic starting from January 2024
1.05.2023
In 2024, meal vouchers in Bulgaria become electronic with the the changes to the Corporate Income Tax Act and Ordinance N 7.
What are the most important changes:
- Food vouchers are digitized, i.e. they are on an electronic medium - a plastic or virtual card. This means that employees will receive a card with which they make payments at POS terminals in the retail outlets that are part of the Ploxy Bulgaria network.
- Paper food vouchers will stop being issued on 30 June 2024. Until then, employers can choose whether to provide paper or electronic vouchers, and all company employees must receive vouchers in the same medium. After 30 June, only digital vouchers remain an option.
- Electronic meal vouchers can only be issued by licensed operators. Ploxy Bulgaria has now received its licence to issue electronic vouchers.
The full texts of the amendments can be found in issue 66 of 1 August 2023 (of the VAT Act) and issue 99 of 28 November 2023 (of Regulation No 7) of the Official Gazette.
The changes introduced will meet the modernisation needs of the market and will facilitate the use of vouchers by employers, their employees and our business partners.
What do we need to know about electronic meal vouchers?
- They will be exempt from tax and National Insurance up to £200 per month per employee, just like paper vouchers;
- Employers must provide the same amount to all their employees, have no public debts subject to enforcement action and have not had a pay cut in the last three months;
- Similar to paper vouchers, electronic vouchers will have a 1-year validity period - a period in which they must be spent. The validity period of the Plexi Bulgaria cards will be 5 years;
- Card funds will not be able to be withdrawn at an ATM or transferred to a bank account;
- Electronic vouchers will only be usable at retail outlets that have signed a contract with the relevant voucher operator and accept payments at a POS terminal. They can only be used to purchase food, food products, soft drinks and food supplements.
What is the annual food voucher quota for 2024?
The total annual quota for paper and electronic food vouchers is BGN1.6 billion.
Plexi Bulgaria is already adapting its systems and processes to handle the digital format of food vouchers. This will allow us to transition to the new way of working within the timeframes specified by law without disrupting our workflow, offering a sustainable and easy-to-use solution to all our customers, consumers and trading partners.
Important: All paper vouchers already issued will be valid until the expiry date written on each voucher and will be accepted in our partner network of retail outlets.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact us.
