Command Performance: The Tax Treatment of Employer Mandated Expenses

Employers frequently not only expect but require performance of duties by employees beyond a nine to five tour at the office or plant. Such obligations may include the employee's living or eating on the employer's business premises, relocating himself and his family as a condition precedent to promotion or continued employment, obtaining additional education, entertaining his employer's customers, and traveling, including trips (frequently accompanied by his spouse pursuant to employer command, express or implied) to meetings and conventions, either sponsored by the employer or otherwise.