Potentially dumb question, but am seeing conflicting answers online. I get cut a reimbursement check separate from my direct deposit income. I have been using my whole $35 meal allowance, but figure if I have to pay 40% taxes on it, I might be better off eating meal prep if my goal is saving as much as possible.
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My compensation is 400 million
No you do not have to claim it.
Yes they are, but it depends on the company with respect to if you are liable for the taxes. If you work for say a large corporation that audits individuals (e.g., PwC) on occasion, this is something they will check for. I never paid taxes on my reimbursed meals but I know I wouldve gotten in trouble had I been audited for it. If you company has not told you explicitly that you are to report them when you file taxes, I would just disregard and claim ignorance if you are ever audited / questioned about it. For example, at my last company where they strictly expected you to record it, I would have simply claimed ignorance as I was never formally told by anyone I directly worked with, simply just others within different divisions of the company.
At my firm (EB), it’s not taxable income, just reimbursement for out of pocket expenses
Employee Travel, Meals & Entertainment are operating expenses, payable by the company, for accounting purposes. The reimbursement isn't income and thus isn't taxed, it's essentially just the company paying its expenses that were charged to other credit cards.
You are partially correct but only in the sense of travel and other client related expenses. If OP is referring to the meal allowance for working late at the office that is not considered an operating expense of the company but factored as compensation for the employee from a tax perspective and is in fact taxable income. At my previous firm we had corporate cards which were used for everything including OT meals, we expensed OT meals and the firm payed those expenses but on our paystubs there was a line item for the OT meals and that was considered taxable income. From an IRS perspective OT meals are considered compensation and is taxable income.
Suck a dick bud
Depends. If a working meal (i.e., you pick up around the office and continue to work after) or meals while travelling for work, then that is not considered compensation. However, if working from home and still getting reimbursed (my bank stopped that a few months ago), then that was considered compensation and thus taxed.
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