Although things appear to be on the up and up, the state of Nevada was hit very hard by the economic collapse in 2008. Even today, with casinos recovering quickly, the state of the economy within the status much worse than it is in many other states. As a result, a new bill has been proposed that would take a little bit of strain off of the employees of Las Vegas. The bill was of originally introduced by assemblyman Harvey Munford, a Democrat located in Las Vegas, and states that companies would be able to serve their employees complementary meals that would be tax-free, comped by the company themselves. The measure is a way for companies to increase the value that they give their employees, and lesson the chances that companies choose not to provide meals, based on the tax issues that they may run into.
The legislation is expected to go in front of the Nevada Supreme Court, which is going to hear the case and the assertions that it can collect tax on meals letter provided by companies. The legislation is one of a number of different decisions that have gone in front of the Supreme Court. On March 1, Carson City District Judge Todd Russell ruled that untaxed meals for employees should remain tax-free, but meals that are provided to patrons should be subject to sales tax, just like any other transaction that was conducted at the business. Another similar ruling was also reached on March 1 in Las Vegas, and involve Caesars entertainment.
This is a fight that is been drawn out for many years, along many different types of legislation, including in 2008 when the Nevada Supreme Court ruled that the state actually owed rebate to Sparks Nugget, a Las Vegas-based casino. As a result of their positive ruling, a number of other companies and politicians jumped on board with the cause.
The original idea behind the bill was that many of the casino employees do not have a choice but state the casino during their breaks, which means that they are forced to eat meals of the casino. If they do not make it easy for the companies to provide free meals to the employees, this means that they must spend a large portion of their daily earnings paying for food at the casino, which may not always have cheap and efficient options available to employees. Many casino workers are on board the legislation, and are hoping that the Supreme Court continues to rule in the way that they have thus far.
Untaxed meals provided by employers is a policy that has taken hold in the number of different states as well. It also appears to be well on its way toward being the norm for most areas across Nevada. With the number of Nevada Supreme Court rulings that we’ve seen recently, it would be surprising not to see some broad legislation come down that gives some sort of ruling on the matter across the board, instead of dealing with it through several different Supreme Court cases.