The IFI Provides Guidance for Clients About Tax Considerations When Employing Various Incentive Programs
The Incentive Federation, Inc. has released its latest project entitled “Tax Considerations for Incentives, Recognition and Safety Programs,” a compilation of numerous industry papers and presentations published by industry experts. The project to consolidate complex information from numerous lengthy documents into simple PowerPoint presentations and infographics, such as the Roadmap to Tax Compliance infographic, was headed by Mike Donnelly, President of Hinda Incentives and an IFI Board member.
Incentive, recognition, and safety programs are designed to engage eligible participants, improve performance, and encourage loyalty. These programs can excite and motivate eligible participants to take actions the sponsor promotes while simultaneously creating advocates for the company. Rewards often have tax consequences for either the recipient or the sponsor and this new project provides easy to understand guidance for sponsoring companies.
The user-friendly PowerPoint Summary and infographic presentation tools are available online at www.incentivefederation.org and are ideal to provide to any client that may find the IRS rules and regulations confusing or intimidating. A webinar explaining the often complex details will be announced in February and IFI members may invite their clients to attend.
These new simplified documents cover the tax treatment of employee service awards, safety incentive programs and travel incentive programs among others. The I.R.S. tax code provides some exemptions to the taxability of recognition and awards programs, and employers need to be aware of how various employee recognition awards are viewed by the I.R.S.
The IFI has researched and published extensive information about these topics for many years and this recent compilation is especially designed for the clients of incentive industry companies designing and providing recognition, awards, and rewards programs. Detailed articles and research presentations are linked to the core PowerPoint document available online to provide employer personnel with additional support information if needed.