Tax Consequenses of a Corporate Membership

[rcannon100]

Do CABI Corporate Memberships result in a taxable event?

The ACME Corporation becomes a Gold CABI Partner. The ACME Corporation pays $50 for an employee membership - and the employee pays $0 for the membership. The employee signs up - and uses the annual membership.

Hasnt this just created a taxable event? Hasnt ACME just given the employee a $50 benefit, and the employee must pay income tax on that $50? Is there any authoritative informmation on this?

[Mikey]

how about this. I was awarded an annual memebership by being named rider of the month, and I then donated it to WABA, do I get to claim the deduction?

[rcannon100]

If this is a taxable event, maybe... (do you itemize?). The bigger prob is that you are going to need lots of paper (something to report the income, and something to back it back out)

[DismalScientist]

Some employee benefits are taxable and others are not. It looks like it falls into the de minimus exception for transportation and commuting expense and is not taxable. See http://www.irs.gov/publications/p15b/index.html

[rcannon100]

I have been told from someone in authority that

Capital Bikeshare does not qualify under the 132(f) IRS transit tax benefit

Which returns me to a strong concern that this is a taxable benefit.

[rcannon100]

If you have received CABI as a corporate benefit, you may wish to consult with your management on whether it is a taxable benefit. At this point I am under the understanding that it is in fact taxable.