26 U.S.C. § 119 — Meals or lodging furnished for the convenience of the employer

(a) Meals and lodging furnished to employee, spouse, and dependents, pursuant to employment. An employee doesn't have to count as income the value of meals or lodging that the employer gives to the employee, their spouse, or their dependents, for the employer's convenience — but only if (1) meals are served on the employer's business premises, or (2) the employee is required to accept the lodging on the employer's premises as a condition of the job. (b) Special rules. (1) Whether an employment contract or a state law calls the meals or lodging "compensation" doesn't decide whether they're really for the employer's convenience — that's a separate question. (2) It also doesn't matter, for meals, whether the employer charges for them or whether the employee is free to skip them. (3) Certain fixed charges for meals: (A) if an employee must periodically pay a fixed charge for meals that are furnished for the employer's convenience, that fixed charge amount is excluded from the employee's income; (B) this applies whether the employee pays it from wages or their own money, but only if the employee must pay it whether or not they actually eat the meals. (4) Meals furnished where most employees' meals already qualify: if more than half the employees who get meals on the employer's premises get them for the employer's convenience, then all meals served there count as furnished for the employer's convenience. (c) Employees living in certain camps. (1) If an employer provides lodging in a camp in a foreign country, that camp counts as part of the employer's business premises. (2) A "camp" is lodging that (A) is provided for the employer's convenience because the workplace is in a remote area without decent housing available on the open market, (B) is located as close as practical to the workplace, and (C) is in a private area that isn't open to the public and normally houses 10 or more employees. (d) Lodging furnished by certain educational institutions to employees. (1) An employee of a qualifying educational institution doesn't have to count as income the value of "qualified campus lodging" they're given. (2) Exception in cases of inadequate rent: this exclusion doesn't cover the amount by which the lesser of — 5 percent of the lodging's appraised value, or the average rent other, non-employee renters pay for comparable lodging that year — is more than what the employee actually pays in rent. The appraised value is set as of the end of that calendar year (or, for a rental period of a year or less, at any point during that calendar year). (3) "Qualified campus lodging" means lodging not already covered by subsection (a) that is located on or near the institution's campus and is given to the employee, spouse, or dependents to live in. (4) "Educational institution": (A) means a school described in section 170(b)(1)(A)(ii) (or a state-organized group of such public schools), or an "academic health center"; (B) an "academic health center" is an entity described in section 170(b)(1)(A)(iii) that receives Medicare graduate-medical-education payments under section 1886(d)(5)(B) or (h) of the Social Security Act, and where one main purpose is providing and teaching basic and clinical medical science and research through its own faculty.