Staff gifts for Christmas - how much is too little?!

Mareqa

We are a fairly small family company and it has not been the best year but we do want to do something to thank the team. They are so spread out now a Christmas party is unlikely.  It would be good to get a consensus on the "going rate". What we don't want to do is be branded cheap! We may as well not do anything....

MovingForwards

Mareqa said:

We are a fairly small family company and it has not been the best year but we do want to do something to thank the team. They are so spread out now a Christmas party is unlikely.  It would be good to get a consensus on the "going rate". What we don't want to do is be branded cheap! We may as well not do anything....

This forum is about welfare benefits, perhaps ask in the cutting tax section as you'll find out what may be tax deductible and at what cost to you.

Edit to add link:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/cutting-tax

Mareqa

ah yes sorry - bit new to the game. 

Andy_L

£50 is the limit before HMRC start to want it taxed

https://www.gov.uk/expenses-and-benefits-christmas-bonuses/what-to-report-and-pay

https://www.gov.uk/expenses-and-benefits-trivial-benefits

MDMD

Just be careful that it is not a reward for their work or performance, they have to be an unexpected surprise to the employee.

sheramber

Andy_L said:

£50 is the limit before HMRC start to want it taxed

https://www.gov.uk/expenses-and-benefits-christmas-bonuses/what-to-report-and-pay

https://www.gov.uk/expenses-and-benefits-trivial-benefits

The £50 limit value is for gifts.

If you give cash it is added to their earnings and taxed accordingly.

x_raphael_xx

Having been recently taken over by new owners we've been looking into this the past week.
The old owner used to hand out £100 cash in envelopes, nothing went through the payslips.

The new owners want to keep things on the straight and narrow.
Essentially HMRC say a small gift (I.e a bottle of wine) doesn't need to be taxed, or you can have an office party to the value of £100 a head untaxed.
Anything bigger needs to be through wages & taxed.