Client bought sporting events tickets and gives to clients & employees to go to (separately).
For the employee issue
Pub 15-B says that de minimis benefits can be excluded and specifically "occasion tickets for theater or sporting events".
1. Under the new law sporting event tickets are non deductible entertainment expense but are the deductible as something else if the tickets are given to employees?
2. Is the only way to deduct as a business expense to include in income?
3. Under the de minimis rules can they be deducted as employee morale or something and excluded on the employee's wages
4. Is there a dollar amount for de minimis? A de minimis fringe is any property or service provided to the employee that has such a minimal value that accounting for the receipt of such benefit would be administratively impractical or unreasonable. I see the explanation of de minimis but there is no quantitative amount that I can find, is there somewhere in the code where it is defined?
For client issue
1. If no one from the client's office goes and the tickets are given to the client is there any support to treat the expense as promotion or some other expense?