I. Enterprise self-operated
In this scenario, the staff canteen is generally treated as a non-independent accounting unit of the enterprise, with its revenues and expenditures uniformly incorporated into the enterprise's financial accounting. For this operational model, a currently widespread view holds that when enterprises run their own canteens to provide meal services to employees, regardless of whether charges are levied on the employees or not, the function of the canteen differs from that of the enterprise’s manufacturing and management departments. Instead, it is similar to other enterprise welfare units such as the medical room, employee bathhouse, barber shop, kindergarten, and daycare center. Therefore, all related costs incurred by the canteen should be covered by the "employee welfare fund." In accounting terms, these should not be considered as expenses of the enterprise.
From a tax law perspective, the canteen...