Displaying my ignorance

I am still wayne_tw wrote:

DutchmenSport wrote:
Instead of giving you cash for your "work", they are giving you a campsite that is valued at $xx. You are then responsible for claiming $xx on your taxes as income. I once had a job that provided a salary and free housing with utilities provided. When it came time to settle with Uncle Sam, I had to declare the cost of "rent" and utilities as income. Yea, I ended up PAYING that tax year. Thank goodness I left that job!

If the housing is a requirement of the job, then it cannot be considered as income. If it is provided as a convenience to the employee, then it is considered income. As applied to a workamping situation, if the campground host is required to live in the campground as part of camp hosting, a common requirement, then the value of the campsite is not income. However, if the campground provided an office, entrance station, or other facility, and the host was required to be at that site only during specific hours, and was given a camp site just as a convenience to the worker, then the value of that camp site is considered income.

The onlyproblem with that standard is the IRS will make the final determination if the job duties truly require the employee to live on site. Security work will probably pass an auditor's smell test, mowing the grass, probably not.