Free Meals At Google, Facebook And Yahoo, May Not Be 'Free' At All
However, the companies that provide free meals argue that offering free perks to employees helps them to socialize and generate ideas organically, while saving the company’s valuable time, since workers don't need to leave the premises to eat. According to tax law, as McMahon puts it, "A company cannot provide tax-free meals if workers commute from home and have the ability to bring their lunches with them."
The companies are only allowed to give free lunch if the employees work in remote sites like on ships, for emergency workers who have to be on call, and for people whose peak work happens at lunch time, like bank tellers. Unfortunately, none of these exceptions apply to employees at places like Twitter and Zynga, so either the IRS will need to continue to turn a blind eye or something will have to change.
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