Greetings, please assist me according to the laws: If I need to file and pay taxes on the bonus lunches my past employers gave me, where on my tax return would I report it?

[Mike9241]

what are bonus lunches? if you mean at times your employer paid for lunch, then if they were taxable the employer should have included them on your w-2. most likely they were a non-taxable fringe benefit - for the convenience of your employer. 

[Vanessa A]

Why did your employer give you these meals?  If it was for their convenience (ex. to keep you from having to leave the facility to go eat), then this is not a taxable event as it is for the convenience of the employer. 

If the meals were not for the convenience of the employer, then this generally should be included in box 1 of your W-2.  If your employer did not include this in your W-2, then you would include it under Other Miscellaneous Income as Other Wages Received. 

To do this in TurboTax you will select the following (note your navigation may be slightly different due to differences in user experiences)

1. Federal
2. Wages and Income
3. I'll choose what I work on
4. Less Common Income
5. Miscellaneous Income
6. Other Reportable Income

[fellynbal]

I received bonus pay, and in addition to that bonus lunches for Perfect Attendance, also sometimes the Manager would buy us pizza for working hard or and maybe meeting goal(s), so that is like an award as well for my service to the company, but the only thing the employer included in my income was the bonus pay, and they paid me in separate checks for the bonus pay versus the other pay they gave me, and I read online about if you are paid separately for the bonus it is or and could be a 22% rate.  So, how could I get the tax percentage rated differently than the other pay being the company included them in one lump sum on my W-2?  Unless maybe they did tax if differently at first but when they reported it on the W-2 they just put all the pay in one lump sum.

[MaryK4]

The IRS requires your employer to withhold on bonuses using different methods than regular pay.  This is because a bonus is not guaranteed, so it is difficult to use the same calculations.  See How Bonuses Are Taxed - TurboTax Tax Tips & Videos - Intuit   @fellynbal 

[fellynbal]

Thanks to all of you for contributing to my posting.

Lord willing, I'm going to calculate a bonus check or so I received, using the 22% rate and see if that matches what they have for tax deductions.  However, IF they DID NOT deduct the 22% tax rate on any bonus', what would my duty be as a previous employee and tax payer as far as the law is concerned, would I need to get amended W-2's, or and do otherwise whatever that may be?  This has happened to me in more than one tax year, and I asked Turbo tax in the past about food and also prizes won as an employee and some or and all of the items they said on the lines that I did not need to report that, so I didn't.  If I need to amend any of my tax returns because I maybe was advised incorrectly will Turbo Tax back me up if I get penalized by the IRS?

Is communicating on the Community post a free service, or does Turbo Tax require me to pay for this tax advise?  Some assistance Turbo Tax charges for.

[Opus 17 · Accepted solution]

The community is free.

The question that has not been clearly answered is, Are the bonuses included in your W-2 box 1 wages?

If yes, then just file your tax return normally.   Don't worry about special withholding.  There are rules for withholding on bonuses, but ultimately no matter what is withheld, your taxes are only really calculated on your tax return.  You combine all your income, deductions and credits, calculate the tax owed, and then get credit for all your withholding and payments.  If your withholding is more than your tax, you get the difference back as your refund.  If too much or too little was withheld at the time the bonus was paid, that will all get brought up to date on your actually tax return. 

If the bonuses are not in your box 1 wages, then read on.

Generally, anything of value that you receive for your services is considered part of your wages and supposed to be included in your W-2 taxable income.  There are some exceptions for small gifts like t-shirts, and meals are sometimes excludable.  I would not worry about non-money bonuses unless they are of substantial value.

But cash or cash equivalents (like gift cards) definitely should be reported on your W-2.  If not, the correct procedure is to go to the "Other reportable income" section and look for an option to select "Wages that should have been on my W-2 but were not."  Turbotax will prepare the proper form.  The income will be added to your other income, deductions and credits to calculate your overall income tax, and you will also be charged 7.65% for social security and medicare that should have been withheld if the wages were correctly added to your W-2.