Lawmakers from the U.S. state of Washington want to fully reinstate a tax break that allows the seafood sector to deduct meals they are required to provide employees at remote seafood processing facilities and on vessels.
The Remote Seafood Employee Meals Tax Parity Act is the latest effort by Pacific Northwest lawmakers to restore the tax deduction, which was limited by Congress in 2017. Seafood processors claim that the loss of the full deduction is a significant cost for their business.
“Members of the Pacific Seafood Processors Association are struggling under the weight of excessive costs, among other challenges, including loss of the tax deduction for the costs of employer-provided meals,” Pacific Seafood Processors Association President Julie Decker said. “Remote Alaskan seafood processing plants – which take fish deliveries from thousands of Washington-based fishermen – may house up to hundreds of employees for short processing seasons, and processors must provide thousands of meals daily per plant as an essential function. Loss of this deduction was an unintended outcome of the 2017 tax act, and our members have urgently sought to restore this deduction since then.”…