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Gifts for colleagues: employee gift cards
Special gifts to colleagues such as employee gift cards from cadooz are ideal for thanking your staff or increasing motivation in your team. These small tokens of appreciation increase their self-confidence, build team spirit, and strengthen the feeling of belonging to the company. No matter whether you are giving a birthday gift or a bonus to celebrate the company’s success, as a team manager you have to bear a number of tax considerations in mind when giving gifts to your staff. We have summarized these for you below.
How much may gifts to employees cost?
The law has set an exemption limit for non-cash benefits of 50 euros a month (including VAT). This means that you can give each employee non-cash gifts with a maximum value of 44 euros every month – regardless of whether they are celebrating a special event such as a birthday or wedding.
In contrast, the upper limit for tax-free gifts to mark personal events of this kind is 60 euros per event (MN 19.6 par. 1 LStR (Income Tax Guideline)). This tax exemption limit is not an annual amount; instead, it may be used several times a year when giving gifts to employees to mark special occasions. The special occasions on which these tokens of appreciation can be given must have a personal meaning for the recipient, be one-off events, or only occur rarely, e.g.
• Birthdays
• Promotions or passing (trainee) exams
• Work anniversaries
• Retirement
• Engagement, wedding or silver wedding anniversary
• Birth or christening of a child
Christmas and Easter do not count as personal occasions, which is why gifts marking these and other public holidays must fall below the 44 euro exemption limit for non-cash benefits.
However, the tax-free allowance for corporate events is another option for giving tax-exempt gifts to employees: according to section 19 par. 1a of the German Income Tax Act (EStG), employers may draw on a tax-free allowance of 110 euros per employee per year for exactly two corporate events. It must be clear that employee gifts are presented during the course of such an event.
Warning: All expenses incurred in connection with the event, e.g. room rent or catering, must be included in this amount. Expenses that exceed the tax-free allowance of 110 euros are taxed at a flat rate of 25%.
Overview of costs for employee gifts
• 50 euro exemption limit for non-cash benefits every month
• 60 euro exemption limit for each personal event such as a birthday or wedding
• 110 euro tax-free allowance for no more than two company celebrations a year, e.g. Christmas party
The exemption limits for the various types of event may be combined, which means that in the best-case scenario, you may be able to give your colleagues a gift worth up to 214 euros. But what is the best gift that you as a superior can give your staff?
Tax-exempt employee gift cards from cadooz
As an employer, tax-free gift cards from cadooz let you give your employees tax-free non-cash benefits every month or on special occasions, thus increasing their motivation and loyalty to the company.
Choose special solutions for motivating your employees from cadooz – we offer you a wide range of gifts and gift cards ranging from the EmployeeChoice Shopping Gift Card in your own design to the MovieChoice MovieGiftCard. This means that instead of racking your brain about what gifts to give, you can give gifts that your staff can actually use. Discover modern, customized incentives for your company!
Retaining staff loyalty with small tokens of appreciation
When you and your staff cooperate closely, every one of you has to be able to rely on the work put in by all the others. A study carried out by the international market research company Ipsos in 2017 shows that 80% of all employees appreciate gifts from their employers and more than 65% say that such small tokens of appreciation significantly increase their motivation. This alone inspires us to help you give gifts to your colleagues and thus promote the success of your company. After all, motivated staff are the bedrock of any successful business. All the same, managers and human resources departments rarely have the time to search for the perfect gift. This is why we are always ready with various solutions for employee gifts.
How to get cadooz gifts for your colleagues
1. Register in the Incentive Mall and choose the gift cards you require together with your preferred method of delivery.
2. We can either send the gift cards to you so that you can give them to your employees in person or send them to your employees directly.
3. Depending on the type of gift card, your employees can choose the right reward for them in our redemption store or use it as a direct means of payment wherever it is accepted.
*Please note that this specially selected information does not constitute individual tax advice and does not replace the advice of a tax consultant. In particular, individual circumstances and the specific facts of each case must always be taken into account as well as other current tax and social insurance considerations that go beyond the income tax presentation.
Personal gifts to colleagues: Contact us
Are you a team leader and manager who wants to give special gifts to your colleagues, or do you have any questions about tax-exempt incentives? We will gladly make you an all-inclusive offer and show you how best to use our products.