De Minimis Meals: Employee Fringe Benefits (2026 IRS Guide)
This guide covers “De Minimis Meals” within employee fringe benefits. The following material presents the IRS treatment of this topic, including the qualifications, exceptions, and examples in the source section. Read the rules alongside the facts of your own situation before deciding what to report, deduct, or document.
Adapted from Publication 15-B (2026), Employer’s Tax Guide to Fringe Benefits, published by the Internal Revenue Service. This guide retains the source edition’s years, amounts, deadlines, and examples. It is guidance for that edition, not a statement that the same figures apply to every tax year.
Context for these rules
This section discusses the exclusion rules that apply to fringe benefits. These rules exclude all or part of the value of certain benefits from the recipient’s pay.
In most cases, the excluded benefits aren’t subject to federal income tax withholding, social security tax, Medicare tax, federal unemployment tax under the Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA), or Railroad Retirement Tax Act (RRTA) taxes and aren’t reported on Form W-2.
This section discusses the exclusion rules for the following fringe benefits.
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Accident and health benefits.
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Achievement awards.
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Adoption assistance.
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Athletic facilities.
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De minimis (minimal) benefits.
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Dependent care assistance.
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Educational assistance.
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Employee discounts.
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Employee stock options.
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Employer-provided cell phones.
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Group-term life insurance coverage.
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HSAs.
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Lodging on your business premises.
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Meals.
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No-additional-cost services.
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Retirement planning services.
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Transportation (commuting) benefits.
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Tuition reduction.
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Working condition benefits.
See Table 2-1 for an overview of the employment tax treatment of these benefits.
De Minimis Meals
You can exclude any occasional meal you provide to an employee if it has so little value (taking into account how frequently you provide meals to your employees) that accounting for it would be unreasonable or administratively impracticable. The exclusion applies, for example, to the following items.
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Coffee, doughnuts, or soft drinks.
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Occasional meals or meal money provided to enable an employee to work overtime. However, the exclusion doesn’t apply to meal money figured on the basis of hours worked (for example, $2.00 per hour for each hour over 8 hours), or meals or meal money provided on a regular or routine basis.
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Occasional parties or picnics for employees and their guests.
Employee.
For this exclusion, treat any recipient of a de minimis meal as an employee.
Employer-operated eating facility for employees.
The de minimis meals exclusion also applies to meals you provide at an employer-operated eating facility for employees if the annual revenue from the facility equals or exceeds the direct operating costs of the facility. Direct operating costs include the cost of food and beverages, and labor costs (including employment taxes) of employees whose services relating to the facility are performed primarily on the premises of the eating facility. Therefore, for example, the labor costs attributable to cooks and waitstaff are included in direct operating costs, but the labor cost attributable to a manager of an eating facility whose services aren’t primarily performed on the premises of the eating facility aren’t included in direct operating costs.
For this purpose, your revenue from providing a meal is considered equal to the facility’s direct operating costs to provide that meal if its value can be excluded from an employee’s wages, as explained under Meals on Your Business Premises, later. If you provide free or discounted meals to volunteers at a hospital and you can reasonably determine the number of meals you provide, then you may disregard these costs and revenues. If you charge nonemployees a greater amount than employees, then you must disregard all costs and revenues attributable to these nonemployees.
An employer-operated eating facility for employees is an eating facility that meets all the following conditions.
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You own or lease the facility.
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You operate the facility. You’re considered to operate the eating facility if you have a contract with another to operate it.
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The facility is on or near your business premises.
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You provide meals (food, drinks, and related services) at the facility during, or immediately before or after, the employee’s workday.
Exclusion from wages.
You can generally exclude the value of de minimis meals you provide to an employee from the employee’s wages.
Exception for highly compensated employees.
You can’t exclude from the wages of a highly compensated employee the value of a meal provided at an employer-operated eating facility that isn’t available on the same terms to one of the following groups.
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All of your employees.
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A group of employees defined under a reasonable classification you set up that doesn’t favor highly compensated employees.
For this exclusion, a highly compensated employee for 2026 is an employee who meets either of the following tests.
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The employee was a 5% owner at any time during the year or the preceding year.
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The employee received more than $160,000 in pay for the preceding year.
Section 13304 of P.L. 115-97 changed the rules for the deduction of food or beverage expenses that are excludable from employee income as a de minimis fringe benefit. This provision temporarily allowed a 50% deduction for de minimis meals for tax years 2018 through 2025. For amounts incurred or paid after 2025, the employer can no longer deduct expenses associated with providing food and beverages to employees through an eating facility that meets the requirements for de minimis fringe benefits or for the convenience of the employer. P.L. 119-21 created specific, limited exceptions for certain industries and for meals provided by restaurants. For more information, see section 274(o).
Food or beverage expenses related to employee recreation, such as holiday parties or annual picnics, remain 100% deductible when made primarily for the benefit of your employees other than employees who are officers, shareholders or other owners who own a 10% or greater interest in your business, or other highly compensated employees. While your business deduction may be limited or eliminated, the fringe benefit exclusion rules still apply and the de minimis fringe benefits may be excluded from your employee’s wages, as discussed earlier. For more information, see Regulations section 1.274-12.
Using the guidance
Keep the documents that establish the dates, amounts, and circumstances described above. References to other chapters, forms, worksheets, or earlier and later sections refer to the linked IRS publication. Check the full publication and its updates before relying on a rule for a different tax year or a situation not addressed here.
Sources and further reading
- Publication 15-B (2026), Employer’s Tax Guide to Fringe Benefits: Fringe Benefit Exclusion Rules — Meals — De Minimis Meals — Internal Revenue Service; 2026 edition.
The cited U.S. government text is in the public domain. Source accessed October 28, 2026. Fynoptic has organized this material for educational use and is independent of, and not endorsed by, the IRS.