Fifty pounds a head, six times a year, and no tax on any of it.
The employee benefit box, built around the trivial benefits rules rather than around a marketing idea. Fifty pounds is the ceiling per gift, six gifts a year is the ceiling for a director, and getting either wrong makes the whole thing taxable rather than the excess.
The trivial benefits rules, as they actually apply here.
| Condition | What it means for a box | What breaks it |
|---|---|---|
| It must cost £50 or less | Including VAT and delivery. Our £50 box is £50 delivered | A £50.40 box. The whole thing becomes taxable, not the 40p |
| It cannot be cash or a cash voucher | A hamper is fine. A gift card is not | Sending a gift card instead because it was easier |
| It cannot be a reward for work | A Christmas box is fine. A box for hitting a target is not | Writing "well done on Q3" on the card |
| It cannot be in the contract | A gift is a gift. An entitlement is pay | A staff handbook promising an annual hamper |
| Directors of close companies: six a year | A £300 annual cap on the director | A seventh box, however small |
Why the £50 box is exactly £50 delivered.
Because the cliff edge is genuinely a cliff. A trivial benefit costing fifty pounds and one penny is not a fifty-pound benefit with a penny of tax on it — the entire fifty pounds and one penny becomes taxable, and reportable, and somebody in payroll has to deal with it.
Which means a hamper priced at forty-eight pounds plus delivery is a trap, and an alarming number of corporate gift sites sell exactly that. Ours is fifty pounds including VAT and including the courier, and the invoice says so in one line so that anybody checking can check it in four seconds.
If you want to spend more than fifty, spend more than fifty deliberately and put it through as a taxable benefit. What you should not do is spend fifty-two by accident.
What fifty pounds delivered actually contains.
| Line | From | Why it is in there |
|---|---|---|
| Three jars — jam, chutney, mustard | Three producers within sixteen miles | The core of it, and the bit people eat |
| A tea towel | Printed in the UK | The most useful thing in the shop and nobody believes it |
| A card box, printed | Recyclable | Because a crate at this price would eat two jars |
| A printed card, your message | Us | Not a reward, not a target, not a bonus. Just a card |
| Tracked delivery | The courier | Included in the fifty, which is the whole point |
Running it for a staff list.
Decide whether it is a gift or a reward
This is the only decision that matters, and it is a tax decision rather than a gifting one.
Collect home addresses, properly
With consent, and knowing that about five per cent will be wrong. It is on the At Scale page.
Offer a dry version
One column in the file. There is no price difference and there should not be.
Order six weeks out at Christmas
The seventh of November for two hundred. Every year, somebody finds this out on the first of December.
Keep the invoice
One line, fifty pounds inclusive, per head. It is the document that makes the whole thing simple.
What you get
- A £50 box that is genuinely £50 delivered
- A dry version at the same price
- An invoice that separates VAT clearly
- A printed card with a message you write
- Delivery to home addresses, tracked
What you very much do not
- Anything that could read as a performance reward
- Gift cards, which are cash vouchers and therefore taxable
- A box that costs £50 plus delivery
- Any contractual entitlement to a box
- Alcohol to a workplace address
For employers, questioned.
You can, and it is taxable, because a cash voucher is not a trivial benefit. That is the single most common mistake in this area.
For ordinary employees, yes, as often as you like at fifty pounds a time. For directors of a close company there is a six-a-year and £300 annual cap.
Genuinely, yes. "Happy Christmas" is a gift. "Thank you for a record quarter" is a reward, and a reward is pay.
No. It is a plain summary of how the rules apply to a box of jam, written to be readable. Your accountant is the person to confirm it.
The other thing you could give an employee.
A year of somebody’s apprenticeship, which is not a trivial benefit at all.
