IRS

lgrako

We give away gifts to our employees at our annual picnics and winter party? Are these gifts taxable?

SMace

I hope not.

AJ SPHR

Here is a website that may provide your answer:
[url]http://www.irs.gov/publications/p15b/ar02.html#d0e89[/url]

mushroomHR

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 09-01-04 AT 03:22PM (CST)[/font][br][br]I believe that things like t-shirts, turkeys at Thanksgiving and Christmas, and small items aren't taxable to the employee. I, too, hope they aren't!

Edit: I just copied this from the IRS's website. I did a search for "turkey" and this is what came up a few entries down the results page:

Employee Compensation
If your employer gives you a turkey, ham, or other item of small or nominal value at Christmas or other holidays, the value of the gift is not income. However, if your employer gives you cash, a gift certificate, or similar item that you can easily exchange for cash, the value of the gift is additional taxable salary or wages regardless of the amount involved.

Dutch2

I attended a seminar just last week on the new and improved FLSA and this topic was covered. According the thses "JD" guys: "The DOL regulations do provide for the exclusion of many forms of payment. Examples of itmes excluded from the employee remuneration calculation are: Gifts and payments in the nature of gifts for holidays or other specail occassions, or as a reward for service, are not part of the regular rate if the amount is not dependent upon hours worked, production or efficiency."
"Payments for idle hours equivlanet to the employee's normal earnings, where no work is performed, such as vacation, illness, failure to provide work, or other similar cause, are excluded."
"Reimbursement for reasonable amounts incurred for busniness-related travel or other business-related reasons."
"Discretionary bonuses are excluded. To be truly discretionary, both the decision to pay the bonus and the amount of the payment msut be determined at teh employer's sole discretion at or near the end of the period."
"Payments made pursuant to a profit sharing, thrift or savings plan."
"Contributions irrevocably made by an employer to a retirement plan or insurance plan."
Sorry,this is more than you asked for, I got carried away.