Trump Tax Law quietly aims for popular perks: Office Snacks

The President’s Signature Tax Act allows long-standing business deductions for the costs of food provided to employees, and overrides workplace perks that are popular in the Silicon Valley dot-com boom. The pantry, which has a large inventory, is currently a classic, such as Wall Street Banks.

US businesses that continue to offer office snacks, coffee or on-site lunches will be taxed after December 31st, when the deduction is eliminated.

With the vast, 1,000-page laws passed through Congress, tax changes received little attention, and it is still unclear how businesses will respond.

spokesman for Goldman Sachs Group Inc. offered employees a $30 scholarship for a pantry that stocks “after-hours” meals and complementary coffee and snacks, and declined to comment on what the company will do when the tax credit ends. The same was true for the spokesman. Meta Platform Inc., another company known for its immediate access to free food and coffee for employees. Alphabet Inc. spokesman Google Did not respond to a request for comment.

The fishing industry in Alaska, far from Wall Street and Silicon Valley, has escaped the nose of its high cost. The state’s fishermen have won a carve-out to maintain support for Alaska Sen. Lisa Markovsky’s overall bill.

There is no such luck for Maine’s Robsman, who Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who didn’t vote for legislation.

restaurant It also allows you to deduct the cost of employee meals, a long-standing tradition of kitchens and wait staff. But this is no longer the case for most other employers, such as factories and hospitals. Many offer free or subsidized meals and snacks to workers.

Eliminating the deduction is projected to raise $32 billion in additional taxes to employers by 2034. According to Congress’s Taxation Committee.

A survey conducted by the Human Resources Association found that free food is widely entrenched in the workplace, with 44% of US employers offering free snacks.

Free office pantry and cafes have been celebrated in recent decades as they encourage employees to work long hours, boost morale and induce creative collaboration through chance encounters. Google co-founder Sergey Brin is growing Quote To instruct his office designer to ensure that no employees are more than 200 feet away from the food.

Trump’s 2017 tax law had halved the deductions for food provided by employers and planned to be eliminated at the end of the year.

Still, Ali Sabeti, CEO of Zerocater Inc., a San Francisco-based corporate catering company, has more than 1,000 clients including major banks and high-tech companies. year Inc. – said he doesn’t expect to lose business as a result.

The catering company did not lose its clients in 2017, when the deduction was reduced to 50%, he said.

“It’s pretty inelastic,” Sabety said. “When you take away the tax credit, the costs go up, but businesses continue to spend just as they would if you take away the tax credit on a laptop.”