Look at the bean counter sticking up for the bean counterkidding aside you are right and wasn't trying to imply otherwise. Pollard made it sound like they began taxing recently so am assuming it is when the IRS tightened their rules. I was only implying that I can understand that some employees may not understand this. I mean if an employer paid it then they would have to count that as taxable income too right? I think Google pays for theirs because it is impossible to assess to the individual otherwise it should be paid by the individual (but you are the expert here).
True the IRS tightened rules on Fringe Benefits within the last couple years. It all started with companies supplying meals to employees while the employees were in the office and not out on the road. The IRS was seeing companies use these meal expenses as a huge expense lowering their taxbale income but the employees were getting a benefit and not getting taxed on it. So the IRS started cracking down on these benefits (meals, car allowances, cell phone allowances, tickets, etc). I know at the company I was previously at they changed their cell phone reimbursement policy and made lunch $5 so they could avoid having to include those type of items as taxable wages on our W-2's.
