Thanks to a recent decision by the Tax Court, we may be able to find new opportunities for you to make certain business meals 100 percent deductible, versus their current 50 percent deductible status.
Under the court’s criteria, you can qualify for the 100 percent deduction if
- you own or lease an eating facility for your employees (this could be for a meeting you hold in a hotel),
- you operate the eating facility for your employees (you also can meet this requirement in a hotel),
- the eating facility is located on or near the business premises (the hotel could be your business premises for this purpose),
- you provide the meals during, or immediately before or after, your employee’s workday,
- you can exclude the value of the meals provided to the employees under Section 119, which means that you provide the meals described above for your convenience, and
- you provide the meals in a non-discriminatory manner with respect to highly compensated employees.
We know you gather your employees in remote locations for legitimate business purposes for conferences and training events. We think we should review those events to see if the meals served qualify for the 100 percent deduction. And while we are doing this review, we should look at some of your other activities as possibilities for 100 percent meal deductions.
