{"id":630,"date":"2024-02-27T15:06:47","date_gmt":"2024-02-27T15:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.danaleecpa.com\/blog\/?p=630"},"modified":"2024-02-27T15:06:47","modified_gmt":"2024-02-27T15:06:47","slug":"minimal-fringe-benefits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.danaleecpa.com\/blog\/minimal-fringe-benefits\/","title":{"rendered":"Minimal Fringe Benefits"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you give a small gift or service to your employee that doesn&#8217;t cost much and you do it infrequently, you don&#8217;t have to include its value in the employee&#8217;s wages. The IRS refers to this is as a &#8220;de minimis&#8221; benefit. It is so small that it would be unreasonable or too difficult to account for it.<\/p>\n<p>However, this doesn&#8217;t apply to cash or cash-like gifts (like gift certificates, gift cards, or use of a credit card), no matter how small they are. The IRS never considers these as &#8220;de minimis&#8221; and you should always include them in the employee&#8217;s wages.<\/p>\n<p>If you occasionally provide meal money or local transportation fare to your employees due to overtime work, you may exclude these from their wages.<\/p>\n<h2>Examples of \u201cDe Minimis\u201d Fringe Benefits<\/h2>\n<p>Here are some examples of minimal fringe benefits:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>you give to your employee a cell phone mainly for business purposes, and he or she occasionally uses it for personal reasons,<\/li>\n<li>when a copying machine that is mostly used for business purposes (at least 85% of the time), is used occasionally by employees for personal reasons,<\/li>\n<li>you give to your employee non-cash gifts for holidays or birthdays that aren\u2019t worth much,<\/li>\n<li>you give items like flowers or fruit during special circumstances (like illness, a family crisis, or to recognize outstanding performance),<\/li>\n<li>you provide your employee with group-term life insurance payable on the death of his or her spouse or dependent, and the payout is not more than $2,000,<\/li>\n<li>some meals,<\/li>\n<li>occasionally thrown parties or picnics for your employees and their guests,<\/li>\n<li>occasional tickets for theater or sporting events,<\/li>\n<li>certain transportation fare.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Examples of Non-Minimal Fringe Benefits<\/h2>\n<p>Here are some examples of benefits that you must include in your employees&#8217; wages:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>season tickets to sporting or theatrical events,<\/li>\n<li>using an employer-provided car or other vehicle for commuting more than once a month,<\/li>\n<li>membership in a private country club or athletic facility, no matter how often your employee uses it,<\/li>\n<li>using employer-owned or leased facilities (like an apartment, hunting lodge, boat, etc.) for a weekend.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If a benefit doesn&#8217;t qualify as a small or infrequent benefit (for example, if it&#8217;s provided too often), then the entire value of the benefit must be included in the employee&#8217;s income.<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, if you encounter any issues or have any questions, we are here to help you with your accounting, QuickBooks, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irs.gov\/businesses\/small-businesses-self-employed\">tax needs<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.danaleecpa.com\/\">Click here<\/a> to schedule an appointment.<\/p>\n<p>This material is for informational purposes only. It does not constitute tax, legal or accounting advice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you give a small gift or service to your employee that doesn&#8217;t cost much and you do it infrequently, you don&#8217;t have to include its value in the employee&#8217;s wages. The IRS refers to this is as a &#8220;de minimis&#8221; benefit. It is so small that it would be unreasonable or too difficult to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-630","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danaleecpa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danaleecpa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danaleecpa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danaleecpa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danaleecpa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.danaleecpa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1022,"href":"https:\/\/www.danaleecpa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630\/revisions\/1022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danaleecpa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danaleecpa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danaleecpa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}