‘TIS THE SEASON TO BE JOLLY….

Seasonal Gifts

HMRC advises that an employer may provide employees with a seasonal gift, for example a turkey, an ordinary bottle of wine or a box of chocolates at Christmas. All of these gifts can be treated as trivial benefits.

If the gift extends beyond one of the items mentioned above, such as from a bottle or two to a case of wine, or from a turkey to a large Christmas hamper, you will need to consider the contents and cost before being able to determine whether the benefit is trivial.

For an employer with a large number of employees the total cost of providing a gift to each employee may be considerable, but where the gift to each employee is a trivial benefit, this principle applies regardless of the total cost to the employer and the number of employees concerned.

Where an employer provides employees with seasonal immunisations against seasonal flu (“flu jabs”), the benefit should be treated as trivial. This treatment only applies to routine seasonal flu jabs and does not apply to medical treatment of any sort or to other immunisations, such as immunisations against pandemic flu or other diseases.

If you would like to discuss your staffs Christmas gifts with us, please get in touch – 0113 2864486.