employer paid "stipends" for costs of working from home (WFH)

[Rapid Robert]

If Google, Twitter, and Shopify treat these payments as taxable employee compensation (not sure whether they do or not), would other employers be justified in not doing so?

https://www.marketplace.org/2020/08/13/some-companies-help-employees-cover-costs-of-working-from-home/

"As more companies decide that their employees can work from home indefinitely, some of them are paying remote-work stipends — among them, Google, Twitter and Shopify."

What about tangible property purchased with "stipends" - it belongs to the employer, correct? If it is distributed to the employee, how could it not be taxable income?

Pub 525:
"In most cases, you must include in gross in-come everything you receive in payment for personal services. In addition to wages, salaries, commissions, fees, and tips, this includes other forms of compensation such as fringe benefits and stock options."

Pub 463:
"Reimbursement of nondeductible expenses.
You may be reimbursed under your employer's accountable plan for expenses related to that employer's business, some of which would be allowable as employee business expense deductions and some of which would not. The reimbursements you receive for the nondeductible expenses don’t meet rule (1) for accountable plans, and they are treated as paid under a nonaccountable plan."

[TaxGuyBill]

Unless it is actually reimbursement under an Accountable Plan, a "stipend" is just a "bonus" and is treated as taxable income to the employee.

Whatever the employee decides to spend that money on is up to them, and the property would be the employee's property.

[ATSMAN]

Unless it is actually reimbursement under an Accountable Plan, a "stipend" is just a "bonus" and is treated as taxable income to the employee.

Whatever the employee decides to spend that money on is up to them, and the property would be the employee's property.

I agree. My son gets $50 per month from his employer to buy PPE. He was informed that it will be in his W2 as taxable income. His employer has an accountable plan (for travel and office related expenses), but chose not to go that route.

[TAXNJ]

Same subject different post title - see TTB prior posts:

https://forum.thetaxbook.com/forum/d...orp#post302209

https://forum.thetaxbook.com/forum/d...ext#post302549

[Rapid Robert]

Those posts are only tangentially related - this thread is not about S-corp shareholders or OIH deduction for employees. It's about "stipends" paid by employer for employee (not shareholder) to acquire equipment/services for working at home. There is no discussion or relevance in this thread (so far) as to whether there is an exclusive-business-use OIH. (In other words, the office itself is a different category of expense compared to services and supplies used in that office - here the topic is the latter, not the former).

I think the key take-away is what was posted in the except from Pub 463 above - just because something is reimbursed under an employer accountable plan does not mean it is tax deductible (or put the other way, doesn't mean it is not taxable income to employee). For reimbursements under a non-accountable plan, the employee must first show the income on the return, then take employee business expense deductions if available (which they currently are not at the federal level, due to temporary TCJA provisions). States may still allow them.