Note 15. Related‑Party Transactions

The Partnership is a party to a Second Amended and Restated Services Agreement with GPC, an affiliate of the Partnership that is 100% owned by members of the Slifka family, pursuant to which the Partnership provides GPC with certain tax, accounting, treasury, legal, information technology, human resources and financial operations support services for which GPC pays the Partnership a monthly services fee at an agreed amount subject to the approval by the Conflicts Committee of the board of directors of the General Partner. The Second Amended and Restated Services Agreement is for an indefinite term and any party may terminate some or all of the services upon ninety (90) days’ advanced written notice. As of December 31, 2018, no such notice of termination was given by GPC.

The General Partner employs substantially all of the Partnership’s employees, except for most of its gasoline station and convenience store employees, who are employed by GMG. The Partnership reimburses the General Partner for expenses incurred in connection with these employees. These expenses, including bonus, payroll and payroll taxes, were $104.8 million, $106.0 million and $101.6 million for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016, respectively. The Partnership also reimburses the General Partner for its contributions under the General Partner’s 401(k) Savings and Profit Sharing Plans (see Note 14) and the General Partner’s qualified and non‑qualified pension plans.

The table below presents receivables from GPC and the General Partner at December 31 (in thousands):


	December 31,		December 31,
	2018		2017
Receivables from GPC	$	23	$	7
Receivables from the General Partner (1)		5,412		3,766
Total	$	5,435	$	3,773

(1)

Receivables from the General Partner reflect the Partnership’s prepayment of payroll taxes and payroll accruals to the General Partner and are due to the timing of the payroll obligations.

In addition, for the years ended December 31, 2018 and 2017, the Partnership incurred certain costs in connection with a compensation funding agreement with the General Partner. See Note 16, “Long-Term Incentive Plan–Repurchase Program.”