Can I buy a water cooler perk for employees?

[MatthewGrace7]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Illinois.

Occasionally an employee will walk off with a 5 gallon bottle of water for their dispenser at home. I don't mind, our finances are solvent and it's a sort of "perk". Is it legal for me to say "Alright you can take them home at will, the company will pay for them as a sort of 'perk'"

If the answer is NO, then let's say I were to take it a step further: Can I pay for an employees to have a direct-to-home monthly water delivery service legally?

Thanks for any insight, Matt

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

sure you can pay for them to have an in home system. It is included on their W2 as non cash income.

 

[xylene]

These services generally offer gift certificates. That seems like a good way to go rather than tolerating casual pilfering.

That way any issue with the service, delivery snafus etc, are the employee's issue with the bottled water vendor.

You current state of affairs (allowing them to take stuff) seems like a way to cultivate very bad habits and breed resentment for employees who don't like 'walking off' with stuff.

 

[eerelations]

Yes you can give your employees pretty much anything you want to give them. Just make sure you do as OHRoadwarrior said and make sure your employees understand they will be taxed on the perk before they agree to accept said perk. While you're not legally required to make sure they understand they will be taxed, it will save you a lot of yelling and screaming on the next pay run and at tax time. (You'll get some yelling and screaming, but not nearly as much.)

 

[MatthewGrace7]

sure you can pay for them to have an in home system. It is included on their W2 as non cash income.

So then my company simply buying water bottles (5 gallon kind for popular water coolers) for the workplace and letting employees take them home as desired is definitely illegal? There is no way this can be viewed as a perk of being an employee?

 

[justalayman]

So then my company simply buying water bottles (5 gallon kind for popular water coolers) for the workplace and letting employees take them home as desired is definitely illegal? There is no way this can be viewed as a perk of being an employee?

the owner of the jugs can do whatever they want with the jugs. Unless you have the authority to commit your company's/ employer's money, you could be charged with conversion yourself.

 

[not2cleverRed]

So then my company simply buying water bottles (5 gallon kind for popular water coolers) for the workplace and letting employees take them home as desired is definitely illegal? There is no way this can be viewed as a perk of being an employee?

No. It is not illegal. But a "perk" that is taken home could be considered a form of compensation.

Let me put it this way: suppose an employee takes a bottle of water home and sell it? How about you just pay that particular employee in water bottles?

 

[MatthewGrace7]

No. It is not illegal. But a "perk" that is taken home could be considered a form of compensation.

Let me put it this way: suppose an employee takes a bottle of water home and sell it? How about you just pay that particular employee in water bottles?

Thank you all for your replies. Final Thought for clarity sake: Assuming I'm doing NOTHING to adjust employee W2's for the water... assuming I take absolutely NO action... and simply let employees take the 5 gallon jugs to their home as they please and turn my head (I'm the owner), am I really really really sure I'm not breaking the law? Remember, my company is buying these with pretax dollars, no different than they could buy coffee/donuts for the break room.

Thank you all for your time and efforts,
Matt

 

[LdiJ]

Thank you all for your replies. Final Thought for clarity sake: Assuming I'm doing NOTHING to adjust employee W2's for the water... assuming I take absolutely NO action... and simply let employees take the 5 gallon jugs to their home as they please and turn my head (I'm the owner), am I really really really sure I'm not breaking the law? Remember, my company is buying these with pretax dollars, no different than they could buy coffee/donuts for the break room.

Thank you all for your time and efforts,
Matt

You might end up with a problem with the bottled water company if they do not bring the empty jugs back, since they generally recycle the actual jugs. Other than that, we are not talking a major issue here. You would definitely not be breaking the law.

 

[tranquility]

Remember, my company is buying these with pretax dollars, no different than they could buy coffee/donuts for the break room.

There's the rub. It is not "illegal" to have them do it. But, you generally don't get to gift things to employees (You put compensation on their W-2s.) and you almost certainly can't use "pretax" dollars in that you take it as an expense against income. Coffee and doughnuts falls under "de minimus". 5 gallon water jugs whenever they want? I don't think so. But, obviously, don't have a case showing it exactly.

For the rules, see:
https://www.irs.gov/publications/p15b/ar02.html

De Minimis (Minimal) Benefits

You can exclude the value of a de minimis benefit you provide to an employee from the employee's wages. A de minimis benefit is any property or service you provide to an employee that has so little value (taking into account how frequently you provide similar benefits to your employees) that accounting for it would be unreasonable or administratively impracticable. Cash and cash equivalent fringe benefits (for example, use of gift card, charge card, or credit card), no matter how little, are never excludable as a de minimis benefit, except for overtime meal money or transportation fare.

Examples of de minimis benefits include the following.

Personal use of an employer-provided cell phone provided primarily for noncompensatory business purposes. See Employer-Provided Cell Phones , later in this section, for details.

Occasional personal use of a company copying machine if you sufficiently control its use so that at least 85% of its use is for business purposes.

Holiday gifts, other than cash, with a low fair market value.

Group-term life insurance payable on the death of an employee's spouse or dependent if the face amount isn't more than $2,000.

Meals. See Meals , later in this section, for details.

Occasional parties or picnics for employees and their guests.

Occasional tickets for theater or sporting events.

Transportation fare. See Transportation (Commuting) Benefits , later in this section, for details.

Employee. For this exclusion, treat any recipient of a de minimis benefit as an employee.

 

[commentator]

From many years of seeing how workplaces operate, I think you are doing a very unwise thing and setting up for a very bad atmosphere moving forward if you simply "turn your head" and allow the ones of your employees who are okay with doing this to take the water jugs home. Because there will be a certain kind of employee who will do this with impunity, and there is a certain kind of employee who will never so much as eat an extra pat of butter on the company expense account.

I am of the opinion that people who'll slip and casually take a jug of water home would probably take a few extra miles of travel and would probably go so far as to fudge on their work, too. They'll most certainly steal their time from you by goofing off when not carefully observed. But I have also seen employees who went to the absurd in not taking more than they were entitled to, such as the employee we had one time who used the company internet to get directions for a personal trip and then called IT to confess and explain why she had done it. And between the two types of employees, there will be a lot of resentment, there'll be tattling behaviors and it will create divisions in the workplace.

If you're going to let them do this, announce that it's a perk available to all and that it is all right for them to do it. Frankly, instead of ignoring their behavior, I think you should instead announce that your employees are not to carry off water jugs for their own personal use, any more than they are to take home rolls of company toilet paper and cleaning supplies from the restrooms for their own use. Nice filtered water to drink is a nice thing to have on the job, but it is not something an employee needs to be hauling away to give their family, relatives, etc. or even selling.

I suspect that not every one of your employees does it. Better to deal with the takers than let them slide by. A famous distiller in our area gives all their regular employees one free bottle of the goods on one particular Friday a month. This is called "Good Friday" and is pretty much a day when there is no absenteeism. But you can bet your life they don't just turn their heads if the employees take home product unsanctioned. In fact, I have seen people fired for taking home toilet paper from the rest room.

Any work atmosphere where it's "you can get by with anything I don't call you for doing" is not going to be a good one or a well managed one.

 

[commentator]

From many years of seeing how workplaces operate, I think you are doing a very unwise thing and setting up for a very bad atmosphere moving forward if you simply "turn your head" and allow the ones of your employees who are okay with doing this to take the water jugs home. Because there will be a certain kind of employee who will do this with impunity, and there is a certain kind of employee who will never so much as eat an extra pat of butter on the company expense account.

I am of the opinion that people who'll slip and casually take a jug of water home would probably take a few extra miles of travel and would probably go so far as to fudge on their work, too. They'll most certainly steal their time from you by goofing off when not carefully observed. But I have also seen employees who went to the absurd in not taking more than they were entitled to, such as the employee we had one time who used the company internet to get directions for a personal trip and then called IT to confess and explain why she had done it. And between the two types of employees, there will be a lot of resentment, there'll be tattling behaviors and it will create divisions in the workplace.

If you're going to let them do this, announce that it's a perk available to all and that it is all right for them to do it. Frankly, instead of ignoring their behavior, I think you should instead announce that your employees are not to carry off water jugs for their own personal use, any more than they are to take home rolls of company toilet paper and cleaning supplies from the restrooms for their own use. Nice filtered water to drink is a nice thing to have on the job, but it is not something an employee needs to be hauling away to give their family, relatives, etc. or even selling.

I suspect that not every one of your employees does it. Better to deal with the takers than let them slide by. A famous distiller in our area gives all their regular employees one free bottle of the goods on one particular Friday a month. This is called "Good Friday" and is pretty much a day when there is no absenteeism. But you can bet your life they don't just turn their heads if the employees take home product unsanctioned. In fact, I have seen people fired for taking home toilet paper from the rest room.

Any work atmosphere where it's "you can get by with anything I don't call you for doing" is not going to be a good one or a well managed one.

I just had a thought. If you receive the bottled water from the provider at a discounted rate, why don't you try to work out with them that your employees can, if they wish, purchase bottles of the water at your rate? This would be a nice "perk" that would allow those who really like that water to get it for themselves as a perk from your business, but not by helping themselves to yours.

 

[eerelations]

I must admit I'm a little concerned about the employees who take a bottle of water home whenever they want to. You have said you just turn your head, which implies that you haven't given them explicit permission to take the water home...which implies that if they don't have permission to take the water, they must think they're stealing it from you. Which begs the questions:

1. What else are they stealing? and

2. Why are you allowing thieves to work for you?

 

[MatthewGrace7]

Thank you all very much for your input. I know precisely what I'm going to do after your council!

 

[eerelations]

Hopefully this includes firing all those thieves currently working for you.