Christmas is coming - reminder about your tax-free turkey

[dude69]

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/eimanual/EIM21863.htm

An employer may provide employees with a seasonal gift, such as a turkey, an ordinary bottle of wine or a box of chocolates at Christmas. All of these gifts are considered to be trivial and as such are not taxable. 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. . If a benefit is trivial it should not be included in a PSA ( EIM21861).



Last year purchased a Kelly Bronze turkey (http://www.kelly-turkeys.com/) on the company card (£76). Didn't actually rate it that well, but will be choosing a similar turkey this year from a local supplier which is nicer and only £43. You might as well.....

[MrRobin]

Iceland do a turkey joint to feed 6-8 at £7.

HTH

[FiveTimes]

[url]
Last year purchased a Kelly Bronze turkey (http://www.kelly-turkeys.com/) on the company card (£76). Didn't actually rate it that well, but will be choosing a similar turkey this year from a local supplier which is nicer and only £43. You might as well.....

£76/£43... how big was/is that and how many did you feed ?

[Gonzo]

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/eimanual/EIM21863.htm

An employer may provide employees with a seasonal gift, such as a turkey, an ordinary bottle of wine or a box of chocolates at Christmas. All of these gifts are considered to be trivial and as such are not taxable. 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. . If a benefit is trivial it should not be included in a PSA ( EIM21861).



Last year purchased a Kelly Bronze turkey (http://www.kelly-turkeys.com/) on the company card (£76). Didn't actually rate it that well, but will be choosing a similar turkey this year from a local supplier which is nicer and only £43. You might as well.....

hmmm, don't know about the Turkey but I think myCo might be able to give its staff a bottle of wine at Christmas.

So the question is, what is an ordinary bottle of wine? I can understand that a bottle of the 1945 Mouton Rothschild would be out of the question, but where can you draw the line?

[SueEllen]

How much does an ordinary bottle of wine cost? Is my company allowed to buy it's employees a bottle of champagne each?

[SueEllen]

hmmm, don't know about the Turkey but I think myCo might be able to give its staff a bottle of wine at Christmas.

So the question is, what is an ordinary bottle of wine? I can understand that a bottle of the 1945 Mouton Rothschild would be out of the question, but where can you draw the line?

Gosh great minds......

[Gonzo]

How much does an ordinary bottle of wine cost? Is my company allowed to buy it's employees a bottle of champagne each?

Since Champagne is wine I can't see why not (although it would be nice to find out how ambitious you can get!)

Gosh great minds......

My thoughts exactly ....

[TheFaQQer]

Gosh great minds......

Where?

What are they doing on CUK?

[dude69]

£76/£43... how big was/is that and how many did you feed ?

About 13 pounds in weight. The £76 is a Kelly Bronze, supposedly creme de la creme, recommended by Delia, Nigella et al., but I didn't rate it as well as other Bronze free-range turkeys I've had, but maybe I overcooked it.

Fifty quid is a fair price for a non-battery-farmed turkey of that size that hasn't been force fed antibiotics, and packed in a 60 kilos to a square metre, and slaughtered at 12 weeks (compared with six months for a free range bird). You can easily buy for instance the Dutchy Original free range bronze birds in Waitrose and Sainsburys, had one of these two years ago, very nice.

God knows why any wealthy contractor would be eating crap for Christmas dinner....

[MonkeyWorld]

Nice one! I've been contracting for almost 10 years now and know a few more of the occasional perks of contracting than some, but never comes across or heard about this one....trivial gifts.

The guidance does mention a bottle of wine as an example, rather than case of wine - which might be stretching things, but how about say a £50 hamper ?