If your a Silicon Valley company with a complimentary cafeteria, the Internal Revenue Service is about to bully you over your lunch money.
The IRS has taken an interest in companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter that supply their employees with complimentary gourmet lunches, reports The Wall Street Journal.
From the agency’s perspective, these free meals are a tax fringe benefit. In fact, the IRS has lent a close eye to these gourmet lunches recently in routine audits, according to tax lawyers.
Specifically, the organization has demanded back taxes from companies not withholding taxes for these meals. These back taxes can be up to the equivalent of 30 percent of the meals’ value.
What’s more, both the IRS and U.S. Treasury Department prioritized “employer-provided meals” as a top issue for the fiscal year ending June 2015. Apparently, both agencies want fresh “guidance” on this issue.
“I suspect this is going to be guidance on these free cafeterias, that the benefit has got to be included in income,” surmised Washington-based employment-tax attorney Anne G. Batter, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Another Washington area attorney, Mary B. Hevener, defended these gastronomical perks, explaining that they can offer a “big time savings” and potential health benefits.
“If your employees are able to eat lunch and get back to their desks in 20 or 30 minutes, that’s a big time savings,” said Hevener. “The food is a lot healthier in many cases. And maybe you don’t want your employees running around in other eateries talking business.”
Tax experts say that, while these meals indeed are typically a taxable fringe benefit, there are instances in which exceptions can be given, for instance if normal lunch breaks aren’t possible.
Perhaps this is the IRS’ way of stress eating amid the continuously evolving saga of Lois Lerner and her alleged targeting of Tea Party groups.
