Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies
I was not surprised when I read the headline, but I was surprised when I saw the reason when I read the article.<p>I had expected it would be over taxes.<p>From the photos and description in the article and elsewhere, it looks like you can get full meals for free, meals that would cost at least $10 if bought at retail.<p>An employee who took two meals a day at the free company cafeteria every working day would be getting a benefit worth almost $5000&#x2F;year. That&#x27;s equivalent to something like an extra $8000&#x2F;year salary.<p>I believe that food provided to employees is normally not taxable for the employee, and is actually deductible as a business expense by the employer (but I&#x27;ve not looked into how the recent major tax changes may have affected that), but I think that was intended for things like where employees have to remain available for emergencies during meal periods, or where meal breaks are too short to allow employees time to go get food, and things like that.<p>The term of art is that the meals have to be provided for the employer&#x27;s convenience. In the short meal break case, for example, providing meals is for the employer&#x27;s convenience because it saves them from having to offer longer meal breaks.<p>Meals offered for things like goodwill, morale, or attracting employees are not considered to be for the employer&#x27;s convenience, but are still OK if they are de minimis. So things like donuts, soft drinks, meals when employees have to take occasional overtime, the occasional company party or picnic, and things like that are fine.<p>Putting in a cafeteria that offers free full meals to all employees all the time probably is not de minimis. It may not actually violate tax laws, but if it does not it is pushing the limits hard so I&#x27;d certainly not be surprised to see attempts to crack down from that angle.