U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at an event about the economy at the Circa Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., January 25, 2025.
Workers are returning to the office in greater numbers, and many may soon find that certain employer-provided benefits that go along with that commute are worth a lot less, or even disappear entirely.
House Republicans recently floated a list of potential measures to help compensate for lost revenue from trillions of dollars in tax cuts championed by President Donald Trump. Taxing employees for fringe benefits such as employer-provided transportation, free food and on-site gyms is up for discussion.
Currently, employer-provided transportation benefits, like transit passes and parking, up to $315 per month, are excluded from taxable income. Employer-provided meals and lodging are also generally excluded from taxable income if they are for the employer’s convenience, and employer-provided on-site gym facilities for employees and their families are excluded from taxable income. Taxing employees for these perks could save around $157 billion over 10 years, according to Republican estimates.
To be sure, these proposals are still in the early stages and there’s a lot of jockeying by lawmakers to accommodate Trump’s $4 trillion extension of the 2017 tax cuts as well as make good on campaign promises for tax breaks on tips, overtime pay and Social Security benefits — in all, the tax cut promises made on the campaign trail by Trump could take the total to near $10 trillion. The situation is especially tenuous given the hefty $36 trillion federal deficit.