Did not know about Google's bonus for covering taxes. So they leave it to the employees to declare whatever they think the value of their holiday gifts were? I wonder if this leaves Google liable for underreported compensation like restaurants. [1]
"Just because you prefer to do less work and get less compensation doesn't make something not compensation."
I lost your train of thought. (Really, not trying to be facetious.)
"Using your line of argument, if you ask your boss to go golfing because you think it will l help your career, you should deduct that from your taxes."
Only if he's not really your friend. [2]
"The hotel seems completely unambiguous as compensation to me."
Your intuition and the law differ. The hotel is deemed an ordinary and necessary cost of doing business for the employer. Putting your employee in another place for a period of time is just the nature of the biz. For some reason, putting up a migrant worker is not?
"About coffee being an intermediate product; you might be right."
Really, I'm just trying to point out that taxes are an arcane, complex issue. Going with whatever you think is intuitive is not necessarily how they work.
"Just because you prefer to do less work and get less compensation doesn't make something not compensation."
I lost your train of thought. (Really, not trying to be facetious.)
"Using your line of argument, if you ask your boss to go golfing because you think it will l help your career, you should deduct that from your taxes."
Only if he's not really your friend. [2]
"The hotel seems completely unambiguous as compensation to me."
Your intuition and the law differ. The hotel is deemed an ordinary and necessary cost of doing business for the employer. Putting your employee in another place for a period of time is just the nature of the biz. For some reason, putting up a migrant worker is not?
"About coffee being an intermediate product; you might be right."
Really, I'm just trying to point out that taxes are an arcane, complex issue. Going with whatever you think is intuitive is not necessarily how they work.
[1] http://ledgerlink.monster.com/training/articles/102-irs-goin...
[2] http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040sca.pdf (see 4th point on page A-11)