Your office snacks could vanish under Trump's tax bill in 2026

The president’s "Big Beautiful Bill," which he signed into law on July 4, takes aim at a tax code that currently lets U.S. companies deduct food and beverages they provide for their workers. The popular deduction was set to expire at the end of this year — and now it will, with a few exceptions.

Alaska’s fishing industry earned an exemption from the tax-code change; Republican lawmakers had to secure Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski’s support to get the bill through the Senate, according to Bloomberg. The restaurant industry also garnered an exception, allowing it to continue deducting employee meals, the outlet reported.

“For some industries, it is culturally demanded,” Christa Bierma, vice chair of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants’ committee on employee benefits, told the Washington Post in regards to the restaurant industry’s exception. “Nobody would want to be the first one to say we’re not going to do this anymore.”

Still, most companies will have to pay taxes on office snacks and beverages if they want to continue offering the perk to employees starting in 2026. Nearly 45% of companies currently provide free snacks to their workers, according to data from the Society for Human Resource Management, an HR-focused trade group.

The tax code was amended previously under Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017, which cut the deduction for office snacks by 50% and laid out its removal altogether by the end of this year. 

Bloomberg reported that the elimination of this deduction for U.S. businesses is estimated to raise employer taxes by $32 billion through 2034, according to Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation.