Tax on lunch

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klaus-v

Registered User
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Hi all,

I live and work for a U.S. IT multinational in Dublin. The office is located in the vicinity of the city center: lunch is provided free of charge to all employees that attend the office, however, I rarely travel to the office (4 or 5 times a year)

since I follow one of our largest customers and either work at home (4-5 days a month) or travel to its two datacenters, one located ~ 15 Km from the city center in north Dublin, the other one about 20 Km in West county Dublin.

I have been doing so for a good number of years. Apart for the mileage that the company reimburses me, I use the company credit card for my lunch (when I go to the customer’s sites) which is on average ~ 2500€ a year, then the company refunds the credit card company at the end of the month

These two datacenters are my usual place of work so I wonder if technically Revenue could challenge the fact that my lunch should not be tax free (I was reading other posts about similar scenarios) but what about all the office based employees that get free lunch in the cafeteria ? Is that not a BIK ?

Thanks !!!
 
klaus-v said:
The office is located in the vicinity of the city center: lunch is provided free of charge to all employees that attend the office
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klaus-v said:
but what about all the office based employees that get free lunch in the cafeteria ? Is that not a BIK ?
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It is, but not a taxable one from the circumstances that you describe.

Food and entertainment

This page provides information on benefit in kind on food and entertainment.
www.revenue.ie www.revenue.ie

Post 1 October 2025​

If you provide meals on your business premises, a taxable BIK will not arise where the following conditions are met:
  • the meals are available to all staff
  • the meals are consumed on your business premises.
The above applies from 1 October 2025.

If the meals are not available to all staff, a taxable BIK charge will arise. This treatment applies unless the conditions for “working lunch” listed below are met.
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klaus-v said:
lunch is provided free of charge to all employees
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Is that not a workplace welfare situation if it’s available to all employees? If it’s there to support staff well being and productivity it’s not the same as giving it to one group of employees eg only to management. If you were at the office you’d avail of the free lunch. Can you be discriminated against because the company has you based at a clients premises?
 
bipped said:
Can you be discriminated against because the company has you based at a clients premises?
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An employee is generally entitled to be repaid, without application of tax, either vouched expenses or a civil service expense allowance based on the fact that they are working away from the normal place of employment as per their employment contract. This is a concession.

The main rationale Revenue give is that the employee would be entitled to claim an employment expense in equal amount as they are being reimbursed, so it's easier to view it as a net zero than for the employer to tax the reimbursement and for Revenue to administer refunds based on employee claims. BY contrast, the employee paying for his lunch when he's at his normal place of work would not be a deductible employment expense.

There are a myriad of concessions for a various circumstances. Food (& drink) when away from the normal place of work is generally called "subsistence" by Revenue.

Your situation might probably be covered by the "site-based employees" section of the below guide, see pages 23-25 of the below.


Ultimately Revenue would chase the employer, not the employee, if they think the employer has made an error. The employer's HR team, in conjunction with the team responsible for the company credit card usage review (e.g. the Accounts Payable team), is supposed to identify if the expenditure on the company credit card is personal and not covered by this concession. These employers' company credit card usage policies are normally written so as to prevent the employee from using the card for purposes that would result in a tax liability, and that means the HR people are able to adopt a light touch approach towards this review.
 
I don't see a BIK bill arising for OP.

Its some time ago now, but I was provided with a company car and a company credit-card.

I paid BIK on the car and the annual fuel allowance (money) I was allowed to charge to the card. Any fuel in excess of the annual allowance I paid for. If I used my car for business purposes, I was allowed to claim mileage at a rate below the Revenue-approved public-service rates.

If at my usual place of business, I could eat in the subsidised staff canteen, no BIK. If I was hosting customers at our place of business, I could entertain them off-premises and I could include my own expenses in the claim, no bill or BIK liability. If we entertained the customers on-site, I would eat with them and not get a bill or incur a BIK liability.

Once a year I was expected to treat my team to some form of entertainment, agreed and budgeted for in advance. We did our best to work around holidays, etc. but if you weren't there, that was tough, no payment in lieu or solo flights :) . No BIK for anyone.

Travel outside of the island of Ireland was by plane and rental car or local taxi, with the rules for food as above.

All very simple and sensible.
 
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