Rules as at 2026, checked against Revenue’s published guidance in June 2026. These figures move at Budget time, so confirm the current year’s limits before committing to a large order.
Search for the Small Benefit Exemption and you will find two kinds of page: accountants explaining it carefully, and gift-card companies explaining it enthusiastically. Both have an interest. So do we. We have been packing hampers in Howth for four decades, and a fair share of them leave each December with a company’s compliments. What follows is the employee-gift tax picture as Revenue actually publishes it, sharp edges included.
What is the Small Benefit Exemption?
The Small Benefit Exemption (section 112B of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997) lets an employer give an employee non-cash benefits without the employee paying tax on them and without Benefit-in-Kind arising. Since 1 January 2025, the limits are up to five non-cash benefits per employee per tax year, with a cumulative cap of €1,500.
Be careful with older articles. The exemption was €500 for a single benefit until 2019, €500 across two benefits in 2020 and 2021, and €1,000 across two benefits from 2022 to 2024. Plenty of pages online still quote those figures. The current €1,500, five-benefit regime runs to the end of the 2029 tax year, at which point it lapses unless the government renews it. Budget 2026 left it unchanged.
How much can I spend on an employee before Benefit-in-Kind applies?
€1,500 per employee per year, spread across no more than five benefits. Within that, nothing is taxed. The edges, though, are sharp, and they catch people every Christmas:
The exemption is all or nothing per benefit. A €1,600 hamper is not taxed on the €100 excess. It is taxed on the full €1,600. If you are anywhere near the ceiling, stay under it with room to spare.
The first five benefits in the year count, in chronological order. You cannot look back in December and nominate which five were the exempt ones. If the company has already given six small gestures by November, the Christmas hamper is benefit number seven and fully taxable, however modest it is.
There is no carry-forward. Unused allowance dies with the tax year.
Can I give my employees a hamper tax-free in Ireland?
Yes, and thousands of Irish employers do exactly that. The conditions are the ones above: the hamper must be a genuine non-cash benefit, it must fit within the five-benefit count and the €1,500 cumulative cap, and it cannot be part of a salary sacrifice arrangement. An employee cannot give up €200 of wages in exchange for a €200 hamper and call it exempt; Revenue closed that door explicitly.
The practical advice is to plan the year as a whole rather than each gesture in isolation. The summer barbecue voucher, the work-anniversary gift and the Christmas hamper all draw from the same five-benefit, €1,500 pool. Whoever signs off on staff gifts should be keeping a running count per employee, which brings us to reporting below.
Does a hamper qualify for the Small Benefit Exemption?
It does, and not by some hopeful reading of the rules. Revenue’s own Tax and Duty Manual works through an example of an employee who receives a hamper at Easter valued at €500 and a €900 voucher at Christmas: €1,400 across two benefits, both exempt. When the tax authority’s worked example is a hamper, you can order with a clear conscience.
The test is that the benefit is not cash and cannot be turned into cash. A hamper passes effortlessly. Nobody has yet found a way to lodge a side of smoked salmon at an ATM.
Is it better to give staff a voucher or a gift?
On tax, there is nothing between them. A €300 voucher and a €300 hamper sit identically within the exemption, with one trap on the voucher side: the voucher must not be redeemable for cash, in full or in part. A prepaid card that can withdraw cash at an ATM fails the test entirely, even if no one ever uses it that way.
So the choice is really about what you want the gesture to do, and here we should declare our interest before giving our answer: we sell hampers. The companies filling this corner of the internet sell vouchers, which is worth remembering when you read their version.
The fair case for a voucher is flexibility. People choose their own treat, and nothing is wasted on a colleague who dislikes whiskey or cannot eat cheese. The fair case for a gift is that a voucher is a number and a gift is an event. A balance on a card gets absorbed into the weekly shop and forgotten; a hamper gets opened, shared and mentioned. If the point of the spend is for people to feel valued, the gift carries more of that per euro. If the point is pure utility, the voucher wins. Both are honest answers to different questions.
Do I have to report gifts to Revenue?
Yes. Since 1 January 2024, the Enhanced Reporting Requirements oblige employers to report Small Benefit Exemption benefits to Revenue in real time, on or before the date the benefit is granted, recording the date and the value. This is a payroll filing, not a tax charge, but it is not optional and it is not retrospective.
The practical consequence for gifting: tell payroll before the hampers go out, not in January. If you are ordering for a full team, give your payroll team the per-employee value and the delivery date in advance so the filing can go in on time. For larger orders we can confirm those figures in writing, which makes the filing a five-minute job.
One last honest note: this article covers gifts to your own employees. Gifts to clients live under entirely different and much less generous rules, which we cover in are client gifts tax deductible in Ireland. And if you are working out what the budget should be in the first place, start with how much should you spend on a corporate gift.
