Bread Working Man's Lunch

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Cooking the books over lunch, are we?

Business meetings over coffee, lunch or dinner are charged to the company. They are a business expense although they are abused on the regular. Example. Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former attorney let the cat out of the bag, that Trump paid off Stormy Daniels and made it look like a business expense. Cooking the books, are we?

It is a privilege, a business privilege. That’s why business players need to revisit it and meet face-to-face more often, to avoid electronic evidence that ends up in court, like in all Donald Trump’s cases. The Trump organization is not alone. Most business players seem to be using  e-mail as the primary communication tool. Maybe it’s because it’s faster than reserving a table for lunch or dinner and walking out of the office in inclement weather, to meet a colleague.

But it’s safer. Face-to-face meetings are the best if the subject matter is top secret or of a sensitive nature. Take the State of Georgia v. Donald John Trump indictment for example. The bulk of the evidence that the Trump 18 formed a criminal ‘enterprise’ to overturn Georgia’s 2020 presidential election result, is e-mail.

Business players also discuss sensitive information in e-mail, always scheming against each other, planning hostile takeovers. There you go. Hostile, the word is self-explanatory. Eating out and charging it to the company is legal because it is assumed the lunch or dinner is about company business. Accountants don’t know what was discussed. If the Vice President says it was a business lunch, then it was a business lunch.

The business lunch is a privilege. Use it, discuss legal and illegal business eyeball to eyeball to avoid e-mails being used in court as ‘EXHIBIT 12.’ Business players are the lucky ones. Ordinary people buy half a loaf of brown bread and a packet of hot French fries and share. It’s not a business lunch. It’s a working man’s lunch.

Nonqaba waka Msimang

Executive Blogger

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