[rdl]

Food onsite is a special case. It's tax-advantaged for the employer (if offering meals onsite is "for the convenience of the employer, and for a business purpose"), and food has a high search/storage/etc. cost. Similarly, I'd value a 30" monitor at about $1k/yr salary.

[rm999]

> Food onsite is a special case. It's tax-advantaged for the employer (if offering meals onsite is "for the convenience of the employer, and for a business purpose"),

Interesting, I read somewhere that Google pays taxes on their free food. How do they argue the free food is for their convenience when their employees can just go out and purchase food and eat at their desk? Especially non-essential foods like snacks, smoothies, etc? Either way, I still think people overvalue free food.

>Similarly, I'd value a 30" monitor at about $1k/yr salary.

Why? Buy a 30 inch monitor for 1200 dollars with your own money, write it off on your taxes, and you've spent less than 1000 dollars of income on a one-time payment. And now you own a 30 inch monitor!

[dorkitude]

One thing worth noting: You have to hit the so-called minimum deduction (9K last I checked) to benefit from this sort of write off, whereas a company can do it regardless of absolute annual business expenditure.