Posted on 09/06/2014 4:22:15 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Silicon Valley companies are known to cater to their hard working employees. Free yoga classes, nap rooms and meals are among the perks their workers enjoy.
A recent Wall Street Journal report reveals that the Internal Revenue Service could be targeting these fringe benefits, more specifically "employer-provided meals" in the next fiscal year. In the agency’s recently released Priority Guidance Plan for 2014 to 2015, the IRS states that the free meals will now be considered a taxable fringe benefit, the same way a company car or phone is.
Rather than taxing employees themselves -- an arduous if not impossible task to monitor -- the IRS said it would collect taxes from employers providing the free meals. According to the Wall Street Journal, if the measure is put into effect, a free meal at Google estimated at $8 to $10 for an employee that eats two meals a day at the office could cost the company an extra $4,000 to $5,000 a year in taxes. Software engineers at Silicon Valley companies like Google typically make a base salary of at least $128,000.
These perks on top of the generous salaries are now a fundamental part of Silicon Valley company culture, and expected by incoming employees. But they are not exclusively in the service of employee luxury: They encourage shorter breaks, longer hours spent at the office -- which may mean less opportunity for employees to spill company secrets off campus as well.
At the moment, the tax code views free meals provided by employers in two ways: If meals are treated as a regular payment for labor, they are taxable. If they are a necessary expense for an employee to do their job (like meals given to oil rig workers in the Gulf of Mexico) they are not taxable.
(Excerpt) Read more at ibtimes.com ...
“IRS needs to tax rat employees at 200%”
This is one of the planks in my Presidential campaign
Except I am only at 100%
If, as democrats say people do not really mind paying high taxes then every democrats should 100% of their income with no deductions. Show us how you life improves. Exclude anyone who does not want to pay the tax from the benefits of paying the higher tax if they don’t pay it.
Go on let me see the benefits
Increase the presidential term to 6 years but limit a president to one term
I look at it like this...if a company provides me with a meal so I don’t have to leave, a phone so they can reach me 24/7 or an apartment so I am on call 24/7 for their convenience..it should not be taxable to me.
The Feds need to butt out.
The monster is now feeding on itself. The industries topheavy with liberalism that conspired to get “it” elected are about to be thrown to the lions.
Some people ate breakfast and lunch, some lunch and dinner and one contractor I knew ate three meals a day there, with frequent raids on the mini kitchen.
On lobster day, lunch probably cost the company $40 per a head. Taco day, maybe 5 bucks.
Another thing, employees got free beer on Fridays. Contractors, no chance.
It will be interesting to see how they figure out what to tax each employee. Being the IRS they'll probably end up screwing everyone.
Since he has decided he is a king rather than our President, and Congress has nullified itself, Obama will unilaterally order the IRS to just tax everything and everyone at 100%.
Companies with large staff like Google find there is an opportunity cost to having thousands of highly valued employees having to leave the premises and forage for food. IRS trolls may not understand that such employees cost over $1 per minute, not to mention how much their work is worth to the bottom line per minute. Even being able to gain 15 minutes of time by providing on-site meals saves more than the cost of the meal.
So, the end result of this policy will be that it is yet one more reason to use lower cost people outside of the US.
And we wonder why there is almost zero job growth.
Aren’t banks in Europe figuring negative interest?
Anything is possible. Tax you at 100% but give you food stamps.
Many companies have traditionally given their employees a big meal around Christmas time. Our cafeteria always made a roast beef dinner for employees. So, this is going to be taxed? Scrooges.
Will this be discussed by congress, then offered as an amendment to be voted on by the states? Or is this just a random IRS decision to extort more money with the penalty of jail and all assets forfeited? Just curious.
Using that old statement, “biting the hand that feeds you,” i.e., Silicon Valley has repeatedly supported 0Bamma, and the thanks Silicon Valley gets is to be screwed by Uncle Sam. Nice!
I understand your point, but IMHO it's not the same. When a client is taken out for lunch or dinner, it's a business expense because you are trying to either receive or keep that client's business. The client is not an employee, and the presumption is that the amount of money received from that client will be much more than the cost of the lunch or dinner.
On the other hand, when you are an employee, whatever you receive from your employer is a form of compensation. If they gave you an extra $8-$10 per day to buy your own lunch or dinner, it would be looked at as a form of compensation, so why should it be viewed any differently if they give you the food instead of the money to buy the food?
Come work for me...no make that...U WILL WORK FOR ME
May the IRS burn in h@ll.
My employer provides me meals with my paycheck.
I wonder if the gooberment will tax that?
Dude, this will crash and Burn.
Our Government is out of control.
Obama is the face of this regime. He will surely
But you can leave any time you choose. ;)
We often have mandatory meetings where food is provided. It is often pizza. I never partake due to gluten and casein intolerance. If the IRS thinks I’m paying tax on food that I can’t eat, they can stick it. There needs to be a line item accounting for those who accepted the food benefit before it turns into a tax liability for the purported recipient. Is the coffee in the break room going to be a taxable benefit too? Watch the break room disappear. The cafeteria already morphed into a self-checkout mini-mart with a laser scanner and credit card swipe.
I resent mandatory meetings with pizza. I can’t eat it, but I have to sit in a room full of others enjoying a free meal and listening to crap I don’t want to hear. Shorten the meeting and let people eat on their own time.
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