With the holiday season approaching, we want to provide you with an important reminder regarding the purchase of gifts, awards, and prizes for employees using University funds and federal grant funds:
- According to University Policy FN 28, gifts, awards, and prizes can include goods, services, cash or cash equivalents (certificates, gift cards, etc. that are redeemable for a broad variety of products or services). Gifts, awards, and prizes are not generally reimbursable unless they are approved as an exception as described in this policy.
- The value of any employee gifts, awards, and prizes purchased using University funds (i.e. using a University Travel Card, P-Card, or submitting an expense report through Concur) is required to be reported as wages to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
- Grant funds cannot be used to purchased gifts, awards, and prizes for employees. According to Uniform Guidance 200.445, the cost of goods or services for personal use of employees are unallowable regardless of whether the cost is reported as taxable income to the employees.
If you have already purchased gifts, awards, and prizes for employees using University funds:
The Payroll Department needs additional information to process the required taxes related to this gift. Submit an inquiry to HR Shared Services by selecting the Payroll and Taxation option. Include the following: the employee name, employee number, and the value of the gift/gift card.
If you have not already done so, please inform the employee(s) who received a gift that they will see the required tax collected from their next payroll in 2021.
For any questions about this information, contact Customer Service.