Onsite gyms, transportation, meals: GOP floats tax on office perks

Office workers could be taxed for perks like on-site gyms, parking, transit passes and free meals under a proposal floated by House Republicans to pay for President Donald Trump's tax cuts. 

Trump wants trillions of dollars in tax cuts, and many employer-provided benefits are currently excluded from taxable income. Making them taxable is one of several options in a 50-page list of GOP ideas on how to cover the cost of a tax cut and immigration crackdown bill, The New York Times reported.

Taxing employees for their perks could generate around $157 billion over 10 years, according to Republican estimates, CNBC reported.

Workers would likely have to pay income tax on the fair market value of the fringe benefits they receive unless their employers decide to cover some or all of the tax burden. Companies could also decide to eliminate the perks.

This could lead to low morale and productivity, particularly among employees mandated to return to the office at least three days a week. Some companies, including Amazon, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, are requiring five days a week. 

“If you start charging employees for parking when they’ve had free parking forever, that’s going to be a lot of unhappy employees,” Jeff Martin, tax principal at Grant Thornton’s Washington National Tax Office, told CNBC.

Congress has debated this kind of tax before, but it hasn't gained much traction. Tax experts said there are other options that are easier to implement and less likely to rankle voters. 

“I don’t think it’s going to be popular with employees, which potentially makes it hard to enact,” Dustin Stamper, tax legislative affairs practice leader at Grant Thornton’s Washington National Tax Office, told CNBC. “There are some real political downsides to some of these [proposals].”

Lawmakers are trying to determine how to accommodate a $4 trillion extension of Trump's 2017 tax cuts and help him follow through with campaign pledges to eliminate tax breaks on tips, overtime pay and Social Security benefits.

His tax promises could total near $10 trillion, and there's a $36 trillion federal deficit, CNBC reported.