{"id":32835,"date":"2008-03-26T16:35:41","date_gmt":"2008-03-26T21:35:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/content.findlaw-admin.com\/ability-legal\/uncategorized\/this-holiday-give-turkeys-not-certificates-for-turkeys.html"},"modified":"2008-03-26T16:35:41","modified_gmt":"2008-03-26T21:35:41","slug":"this-holiday-give-turkeys-not-certificates-for-turkeys","status":"publish","type":"corporate","link":"https:\/\/corporate.findlaw.com\/finance\/this-holiday-give-turkeys-not-certificates-for-turkeys.html","title":{"rendered":"This Holiday Give Turkeys, Not Certificates for Turkeys"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In a recent Technical Advice Memorandum ("TAM"), the Internal Revenue Service concluded that employer-provided holiday gift coupons that were redeemable at certain grocery stores for up to $35 were taxable to employees.<\/p>

Generally, an employee's taxable wage income includes any benefit provided to an employee unless it is a de minimis<\/i> fringe benefit within the meaning of Section 132 of the Internal Revenue Code. A de minimis<\/i> fringe benefit includes any property or service the value of which is so small as to make accounting for it unreasonable or administratively impractical.<\/p>

Under Section 132 and the Treasury Regulations issued to interpret Section 132, a cash or cash equivalent fringe benefit is never excluded from taxable wages as a de minimis<\/i> fringe benefit because it has a readily ascertainable value and it is not unreasonable or administratively impractical to account for. A cash equivalent fringe benefit (like a gift certificate) is taxable even though the property or service acquired, if provided in kind directly to the employee, would be excluded as a de minimis<\/i> fringe benefit. For example, as noted in the TAM, the provision of cash to an employee for a theater ticket is not<\/u> excluded as a de minimis<\/i> fringe benefit even though the ticket itself, if provided in kind, would be.<\/p>

Employers that provide holiday cash bonuses, gift certificates or other cash equivalent benefits should ensure that all such gifts are treated as taxable wages for employment and income tax purposes.<\/p>

For assistance with the tax issues surrounding your holiday largess, contact Patricia A. Hintz at 414.277.5833 or your Quarles & Brady attorney.<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a recent Technical Advice Memorandum (“TAM”), the Internal Revenue Service concluded that employer-provided holiday gift coupons that were redeemable at certain grocery stores for up to $35 were taxable to employees. Generally, an employee’s …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_stopmodifiedupdate":true,"_modified_date":"","_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false},"corporate_categories":[6484,6479,6483],"class_list":["post-32835","corporate","type-corporate","status-publish","hentry","corporate_categories-finance__tax__federal-tax","corporate_categories-finance","corporate_categories-finance__tax"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/corporate.findlaw.com\/legal-api\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/corporate\/32835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/corporate.findlaw.com\/legal-api\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/corporate"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/corporate.findlaw.com\/legal-api\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/corporate"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/corporate.findlaw.com\/legal-api\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"corporate_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corporate.findlaw.com\/legal-api\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/corporate_categories?post=32835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}