IRS tells Silicon Valley there’s no such thing as a free lunch

Apparently taking that cliché about free lunches seriously, the IRS is telling Silicon Valley workers they have to pay tax on the high-quality meals they get for free at work.

Read: 2 tax benefits of a company car

Major technology companies in the greater San Francisco areas are often situated on isolated multi-acre campuses that house thousands of employees. Google’s headquarters has 29 restaurants.

The Wall Street Journal says the IRS is pushing companies to charge a tax equivalent 30% of a meals’ fair market value on an employee’s paycheque. The tax agency says the free food is a taxable benefit along the lines of a company cell phone. In turn, the tech companies say the food should be tax-free because they can’t provide workers with reasonable lunch breaks.

Read more here.

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Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.