The General Directorate of Taxes (DGT) analyzes, in its consultation number V1035, dated April 21, 2021, the issue raised by an association that brings together companies issuing, among other services, food vouchers. These are delivered by certain companies as compensation to their employees, to cover the meal expenses incurred by said employees.
The General Directorate of Taxes (DGT) analyzes, in its consultation number V1035, dated April 21, 2021, the issue raised by an association that brings together companies issuing, among other services, food vouchers. These are delivered by certain companies as compensation to their employees, to cover the meal expenses incurred by said employees.
The object of the question raised before the administrative body is determined by the analysis of the following concepts and economic facts:
• Exemption from food vouchers, delivered as work performance in kind to those workers who perform their duties totally or partially through teleworking.
• The possibility of applying the exemption in the case of delivery to workers who perform their duties through continuous shifts.
• If the costs of delivering food to your home, both if they are billed by the hospitality establishment together with the food, and if they are billed independently by the company in charge of delivery, would be included in the exemption.
What is the criterion applied by the DGT?
Letter a) of article 42.3 of Law 35/2006, of November 28, on Personal Income Tax, modified with effect from January 1, 2020, by the first final provision of the Royal Decree-Law 35/2020, of December 22, on urgent measures to support the tourism, hospitality and commerce sector and in tax matters, includes among the income from exempt work in kind those in which deliveries occur in the place chosen by the worker to carry out their work on days when it is done remotely or through teleworking.
In the present case, the vouchers under consultation (vouchers given to teleworking or continuous-time workers) comply with the requirements of article 45 of the Tax Regulation, approved by Royal Decree 439/2007, of March 30.
In this sense, it would be an indirect formula for providing the company canteen service, so it would be an exempt work performance in kind, with a limit of 11 euros per day in accordance with the provisions of the aforementioned regulatory article. .
In relation to the last question raised, the exemption must be extended to expenses necessary for the delivery of food to the workplace or to the place chosen by the worker to carry out their work on the days in which it is carried out at distance or through teleworking.
And this, regardless of whether the expenses are included by the company providing the food service in the corresponding invoice, or have been invoiced independently by the company in charge of carrying them, although the total exempt amount may not exceed the aforementioned amount. limit of 11 euros daily.
In conclusion…
The exemption of food vouchers delivered to workers who carry out their work through teleworking will be applicable as long as it is within the limits established by regulation and will include the expenses derived from their carrying and delivery.
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