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No Such Thing As A Free Lunch: IRS Mulls Tax On Employee Meals [Pre-Cursor to Health Insurance]
Forbes ^ | 9/4/14 | Kelly Phillips Erb

Posted on 09/05/2014 7:00:18 AM PDT by SoFloFreeper

When I was contemplating where I might want to practice after law school, I was struck by the description of one particular firm in Philadelphia with a thriving tax practice. A former partner warned me off, explaining that they brought lunch to your desk. After years of scratching together my own lunch, I thought that sounded pretty great so I asked what was so terrible about having your lunch brought to you.

“They do it,” she said simply, “Because they don’t want you to leave.”

....On August 26, 2014, the Department of Treasury released the 2014-2015 Priority Guidance Plan (downloads as a pdf) which raised the issue of employer-provided meals as one of 317 projects that are priorities for the upcoming year. The plan “represents projects we intend to work on actively during the plan year.”

In other words: the IRS is rethinking looking the other way when it comes to free meals. While the plan did not focus on how IRS specifically plans to evaluate the issue – nor did it establish any timeline – it’s likely that the agency will shift resources to consider how and whether to force companies to include “free” meals as compensation for employees.

(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: greedyhand; jobs; taxes
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To: Quality_Not_Quantity

The cost of compliance with this rule is easily more than the cost of the meal. So what they are really doing is telling companies you cannot provide meals to your employees. Not for Christmas parties, team events, or to reward them for working lunches.


21 posted on 09/05/2014 8:09:02 AM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: Quality_Not_Quantity

So my son travels. He gets a 30 meal reimbursment. So he pays for his meal with his post tax dollars and gets TAXED on the reimbursement?


22 posted on 09/05/2014 8:09:24 AM PDT by Chickensoup (Leftist totalitarian fascism is on the move.)
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To: TexasGator

“It is a ‘benefit’ to the employee.”

Yes and we wouldn’t want companies doing anything to benefit their employees. Only the government is allowed to do that.


23 posted on 09/05/2014 8:09:41 AM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: driftdiver

“Yes and we wouldn’t want companies doing anything to benefit their employees. Only the government is allowed to do that”

?


24 posted on 09/05/2014 8:11:12 AM PDT by TexasGator
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To: SoFloFreeper

The IRS is going after revenue like a pack of starving weasels.


25 posted on 09/05/2014 8:36:08 AM PDT by Mike Darancette (Do The Math)
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To: TexasGator

Food is a great way to benefit employees. The amount of taxes generated will be negligible but the cost of tracking it will mean many companies will reduce or eliminate the practice.


26 posted on 09/05/2014 8:40:09 AM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: TexasGator; Quality_Not_Quantity
My point is that in a modern corporation, an employee has little difference from a production machine in role and function. The machine is taxed on the profits it produces. The gas, oil and electricity is a necessary expense to keep the machine operating.

By the same logic, an employee working an eight hour shift ought to be able to have the cost for a business meal count as a necessary expense to keep the human machine operating. If (s)he is working a 12 hour shift or more, then at least two meals.

27 posted on 09/05/2014 8:40:17 AM PDT by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
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To: Chickensoup
So my son travels. He gets a 30 meal reimbursement. So he pays for his meal with his post tax dollars and gets TAXED on the reimbursement?

Yes, it is an absolute mess, no matter how the government tries to slice it up. I can foresee it happening, tho...

28 posted on 09/05/2014 8:41:17 AM PDT by Quality_Not_Quantity (Liars use facts when the truth doesn't suit their purposes.)
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To: Mike Darancette

Congress has the right to reign them in with legislation if they had the guts to do so.


29 posted on 09/05/2014 8:42:56 AM PDT by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
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To: Mike Darancette

It’ll get worse as the economic demise of the USA gets more and more imminent.


30 posted on 09/05/2014 8:43:13 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: dhs12345
A typical health care plan can be at least $10,000 a year. Tax that at 20 percent

Au contraire, mon ami.

Health care is a right, not a benefit. Don't you remember ANYTHING from Obamacare 101?

31 posted on 09/05/2014 8:46:40 AM PDT by Quality_Not_Quantity (Liars use facts when the truth doesn't suit their purposes.)
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To: dhs12345

not me..


32 posted on 09/05/2014 8:49:45 AM PDT by ßuddaßudd (>> F U B O << "What the hell kind of country is this if I can only hate a man if he's white?")
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To: Vigilanteman

“By the same logic, an employee working an eight hour shift ought to be able to have the cost for a business meal count as a necessary expense to keep the human machine operating. If (s)he is working a 12 hour shift or more, then at least two meals. “

You miss the point. It is a business expense that is deductible by the business. At the same time it is a benefit to the employee and benefits are taxable.


33 posted on 09/05/2014 8:51:37 AM PDT by TexasGator
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To: ImJustAnotherOkie

You are onto something there. A lot of these fast food workers get a daily food allowance in addition to their hourly pay. Start taxing that and they’re really going to start feeling the pinch.


34 posted on 09/05/2014 9:10:28 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: TexasGator

By your logic, any butt-wipe you use while taking a dump at work is also a benefit and should be taxable. Ditto for tampons, coffee, plastic forks and even the office supplies provided by the employer. Where does it end?


35 posted on 09/05/2014 9:41:15 AM PDT by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
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To: Jack Hammer

Whew, for a minute I was worried but I checked and I have two right nuts.


36 posted on 09/05/2014 10:04:22 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum ("The man who damns money obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it earned it." --Ayn Rand)
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To: MeshugeMikey

:-)


37 posted on 09/05/2014 10:06:45 AM PDT by Mears
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Then the really significant question for you is, do you have two left nuts, too!

If so, the girls will be swarming around...


38 posted on 09/05/2014 10:55:47 AM PDT by Jack Hammer
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To: Quality_Not_Quantity
Lol. I need to take that class again. :)

Unfortunately it isn't free. And someone has to pay. Someone always pays.

The feds and Democrats are probably drooling at the prospect of a huge windfall when they start taxing health insurance.

Of course, voters have to be stupid not to realize that it will affect them directly. But they will continue to foolishly vote for Democrats and wonder, whine, and complain when their taxes jump.

39 posted on 09/05/2014 12:01:07 PM PDT by dhs12345
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To: ßuddaßudd

And we all would have a lot less if Democrats have their way i.e. a carbon tax.


40 posted on 09/05/2014 12:02:37 PM PDT by dhs12345
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