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Breakfast: depart duty station prior to 6:00 am. • Lunch: depart duty station prior to Noon(day of departure) or return to duty station after 2:00 p.m. (day of return). Dinner: depart duty station prior to 5:00 p.m. (day of departure)or return to duty station after 8:00 p.m. (day of return). • The travel must involve a travel destination located at least 35 miles from the employee's regularly assigned duty station or home,whichever is less. 5.2.7 Meals During Daily Travel Agency heads may set individual agency policy to allow for employee reimbursement of breakfast and dinner meals for day travel when employees are not in overnight travel status. By state statute, lunches cannot be reimbursed unless the employee is in overnight travel status or otherwise specified in G.S 138-6. Agency policy should incorporate the following departure times and return times: • Breakfast(morning): depart duty station prior to 6:00 am and extend the workday by 2 hours. • Dinner(evening): return to duty station after 8:00 pm and extend the workday by 3 hours. • The travel must involve a travel destination located at least 35 miles from the employee's regularly assigned duty station or home,whichever is less. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS)considers meal reimbursement outside of overnight travel status as taxable compensation payments. If an employee receives breakfast or dinner under this section,then the agency must treat the payment as employee compensation for purposes of withholding federal, state, and FICA taxes. The Office of State Controller(OSC)has established payroll system payment mechanisms to ensure withholding of taxes for meal compensation under this section. Agency heads who decide to implement this section as part of their agency's travel policy should guarantee all employees are aware of the tax implications and include the policy in the agency's internal policy and procedures manual. 5.2.8 Meals and Day-to-Day Activities State employees may not be reimbursed for meals in conjunction with a congress, conference, assembly, convocation, meeting, or by whatever name called, of employees within a single state agency or institution or between the employees of two or more state agencies or institutions, to discuss issues relating to the employee's normal day-to-day business activities.