why does the ceiling prevent you from spending more than 25 euros per day?

Criticized by restaurateurs for a use that they consider unfounded, meal vouchers, whether in card or paper format, are a welcome boost for many, many households in France.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, it is possible to use them even in supermarkets for food shopping, for a fairly extensive list of products. But be careful: if the daily ceiling had, at the time, been increased to 38 euros, it has since been lowered to around 25 euros per day.

But actually, why is there a ceiling?

A question of surveillance

In fact, “basically, meal vouchers respond to a political and social demand: to eat well at lunchtime during the work break”, explains, withactu.fra spokesperson for Edenred, one of the groups marketing the meal voucher.

So logically, the public authorities of the time ensured that they could only be used for work. To do this, at the time, they therefore set a maximum use of two paper titles per day.

In reality, it was at the discretion of the restaurateurs, but the law was such.

“The idea, by imposing a ceiling, whether on paper or electronically, is to ensure that the monthly sum was not used all at once,” confirms Vincent Gallego, Secretary General of the Commission. national meal vouchers (CNTR).

When the dematerialized card was released in 2014, the executive saw it as an opportunity to ensure that the money from meal vouchers was not used excessively, to go to a gourmet restaurant for example.

The card also made it possible to simply prevent employees from using their dematerialized meal vouchers on days when they are not working.

Why 25 euros?

Now why 25 euros? The cap figure is due to a little calculation.

The employer contribution exemption ceiling is limited to 7.26 euros. In other words, the employer cannot be relieved of taxes beyond 7.26 euros per day.

On the other hand, the employee, as a general rule, contributes the same amount, which gives a total of 15.52 euros (employer + employee share). This obviously depends on collective agreements.

As a result, according to Vincent Gallego, the ceiling of 25 euros serves to “give the employee the freedom to consume more than one title per day, while somewhat regulating its use”.

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