Principal Katie Bjornstad Amin was quoted in the Vox article, “Office snacks might be dying off. Good,” where she discussed the potential disappearance of office snacks and the role played by shrinking tax breaks for employers who provide them.
As Vox noted, office snacks are tax deductible for employers. Prior to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, they were 100 percent deductible; now, that’s been cut down to 50 percent. Snacks are considered what’s called a de minimis fringe benefit, and there are fewer limits around tax deductions for them compared to other employer-provided meals.
“What they’re spending on the purchase of snacks, the employer right now is allowed to deduct 50 percent of the cost of the snack unless the snack is coming from a restaurant,” said Amin. “Employers were not happy about that, the 50 percent cut.”
According to Vox, Amin added that the tax deductibility for snacks for companies will be eliminated entirely in 2026. “They might not want to purchase the snacks for employees if they can’t deduct it,” she said. “It might still be worth it to provide snacks to employees for other reasons, that’s worth more than the deduction to them.”
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