When I was in grad school in SF, my Aunt who was a doctor (dermatologist) attended the annual dermatology conference there. She invited us out to dinner at several of the nicest restaurants in the city and we were treated to the full course experience, plus lots of nice wine.

At the end, all the doctors fought to pay the bill because it was a tax write-off (business expense? I don't know how professional doctors with practices account for these things). As a grad student in SF living on $25K/year it was quite an eye-opener.

> At the end, all the doctors fought to pay the bill because it was a tax write-off (business expense?

Either these doctors went to the Michael Scott School of Business or it was some other reason they were fighting over who pays.

A tax write off is only worth (dollar amount - (dollar_amount * tax rate in percent)

Example: You spend $100 and pay 30% in corporate tax. Your write off that you spent $100 for is worth $30, end result is you’re out $70.

If you let someone else pay and just pay $30 of taxes on your $100, you keep $70, which is over twice as much money as the previous scenario.

If no one else was willing to pay for the meal, having the business pay for it would save you the tax rate.

This only makes sense if it’s something like a car that you’re going to own anyways, not for fancy ass meals unless that’s how you eat anyways.

Jerry, all these big companies, they write off everything.