The Small Benefit Exemption: five gifts, €1,500, reported as you go
Since 1 January 2025 an Irish employer can give each employee up to five non-cash benefits a year, worth €1,500 in total, free of Income Tax, USC and PRSI. Each one is reported to Revenue on or before the day it is given. Here is how the exemption works, what breaks it, and how a gift above it is taxed, with the Revenue page for every figure.
How Revenue taxes gifts to employees
The Small Benefit Exemption. Under section 112B of the Taxes Consolidation Act an employer can give up to five small benefits a year with a combined value of no more than €1,500, free of Income Tax, USC and PRSI. A benefit must be a voucher or a tangible item, not cash, and a voucher must not be redeemable for cash in full or in part: Revenue's manual notes that a card usable at an ATM fails even if nobody withdraws cash. The benefit cannot be part of a salary sacrifice arrangement. The current limits run from 2025 to the end of 2029, and the Finance Act 2025 left them unchanged for 2026.
Order and overflow. The five benefits count in the order they are given; the employer cannot choose which five, and cannot tax an early small gift to keep the allowance for a larger one later. A sixth benefit is taxable however small. A single benefit worth more than €1,500 is taxed in full, not on the excess. Unused allowance does not carry into the next year. Minor voucher fees and postage are ignored.
Above the exemption. Anything else is notional pay: Income Tax, USC and PRSI are deducted through payroll on its value. An employer who wants the employee to keep the full value grosses the benefit up; Revenue's example turns a €110 benefit into €208.33 of notional pay for a higher-rate employee, with employer PRSI on top. For gifts that are minor in value and irregular, Revenue also operates an Irish PAYE Settlement Agreement: apply by 31 December of the year, pay within 23 days of year end. Benefits that already qualify for the Small Benefit Exemption cannot go into it. Performance awards are taxable unless they fit within the exemption; a long service award is exempt on its own terms only at 20 years or more, as a tangible item costing €50 or less per year of service, with no similar award in the previous five years.
Reported as you go. Since 1 January 2024 the Enhanced Reporting Requirements oblige the employer to return the date and value of every small benefit to Revenue through payroll software or ROS on or before the date it is given. Records of benefits and their valuation are kept for six years.
This is general information as of 2026, not tax advice. Your payroll provider or accountant decides how each gift is treated.
Three gifts, three payroll treatments
The same employee, one year, three decisions.
A €200 welcome gift in March
Non-cash, the first benefit of the year, within €1,500: exempt. Payroll reports the date and value to Revenue on or before the day it is delivered. €1,300 of allowance remains, and four more benefits can follow.
A €1,600 award in September
A single benefit over €1,500 is taxed in full as notional pay, whatever the allowance left. Planned at €1,300 instead, as the second benefit of the year, it would fit. That is why values are set before the date, not after.
A sixth gift in December
Even a €30 Christmas voucher is taxable once five benefits have been given, because the order cannot be rearranged. Payroll either deducts Income Tax, USC and PRSI or grosses it up so the employee keeps the full value.
What Mojo Gift gives Irish payroll
The date and value Revenue asks for, available when the gift goes out.
Date and value per gift, in real time
Every Mojo Moment is logged with recipient, value, occasion and delivery date as it is issued, which is what same-day reporting needs. The year exports in one file.
Non-cash by design
The recipient chooses an experience or a product, never cash, and the amount is never shown to them. A Mojo gift is never redeemable for cash.
Five benefits planned, not discovered
At setup the year's occasions are mapped against five benefits and €1,500 per person, so a large award is planned as taxable from the start rather than found at year end.
Invoiced in EUR, nothing lost to expiry
One EUR invoice, gift value funded at face value, and gifts that never expire, so no budget disappears in unredeemed vouchers.
Built for the finance question
A programme that answers the payroll query before it is asked.
A record Revenue reporting can use
Values set against the five benefits
No expiry
A human concierge
Irish employee gift tax, answered
Did Budget 2026 change the Small Benefit Exemption?
No. The five benefits and €1,500 introduced from 1 January 2025 apply for 2025 to 2029, and the Finance Act 2025, enacted in December 2025, did not amend section 112B. Budget 2026's benefit-in-kind measures concern company vehicles.
Can we give a Christmas voucher and a work anniversary gift in the same year?
Yes, as long as they are non-cash, their combined value stays within €1,500 and they are among the first five benefits that employee receives in the year. Each one is reported to Revenue on or before the day it is given.
What happens if one gift is worth more than €1,500?
The whole gift is taxable as notional pay, not just the amount above €1,500. Income Tax, USC and PRSI are deducted through payroll, or the employer grosses the benefit up so the employee keeps the full value.
Is a reward for hitting a target tax free in Ireland?
Revenue treats performance awards as taxable, but says an employer can give one tax free if it meets the conditions of the Small Benefit Exemption: non-cash, within the five benefits and the €1,500. This differs from the UK, where a reward for performance can never be a trivial benefit.
How do we report small benefits to Revenue?
Under the Enhanced Reporting Requirements, live since 1 January 2024, the employer submits the date and value of each small benefit through payroll software or ROS on or before the date it is given. Taxable gifts go through the normal payroll submission. Records are kept for six years.
What does Mojo Gift cost, and does it decide whether a gift is taxable?
€25 per Mojo Moment per year, from 50 Moments (€1,250 a year), £25 for UK-billed programmes, invoiced in EUR, GBP or USD; gift value is funded on top at face value. One-off campaigns are €6,250 per 250 Moments. Mojo Gift does not decide the tax treatment: each gift carries its recipient, value, occasion, country and date, and your payroll provider or accountant applies the rule.
Plan the five benefits before the first one goes out
Book a 30-minute call. We map your occasions to five benefits and €1,500 per person and show the record each gift carries for Revenue.
Book a 30-minute call