A One-Page Gift Policy for a Small Company: A Template for Giving and Receiving Gifts, With the Rules It Cites

We sell a $35 logo mug gift box, printed, packed and shipped to each person's address. This page offers a template your company adapts; it quotes the rules and makes no claim that the template meets any law.

Key facts (each source re-read October 29, 2026):

• Company caps: in a 2013 survey by SAI Global, a compliance-software company, "35 percent of companies require that corporate gifts be" modest, "defined as under $25"; "Another 22 percent of companies capped the value on permissible gifts at $50 or $100" (Ogletree Deakins, 2014).
• Reporting gifts received: in the same survey, "nearly three-quarters of companies require their employees to report on gifts that they have received" (same source).
• The IRS deduction cap: "You can deduct no more than $25 for business gifts you give directly or indirectly to each person during your tax year" (IRS Pub. 463).
• Gift cards to employees: cash equivalents, "no matter how little, are never excludable as a de minimis benefit" (IRS Pub. 15-B).
• Federal employees: "unsolicited gifts having an aggregate market value of $20 or less per source per occasion", and no more than $50 a year from any one person (5 CFR 2635.204(a)).

Part of our gift rules and taxes section: every rule quoted from the source and dated.

What Goes in a Small Company's Gift Policy?

Six parts, each answering one question your staff will ask. The right-hand column is the outside rule or figure each part can point to:

The One-Page Gift Policy Template

A template, not legal or tax advice. Copy it, fill the brackets, cut what doesn't apply, and have your counsel or tax professional read your version. The brackets are yours to set: we suggest no dollar amounts.

[Company name] Gift Policy (effective [date])

1. Purpose. We give and accept gifts only to say thank you. We never give or accept a gift to win, keep or reward a decision.

2. Giving gifts.

• A gift to any one person stays at or under [$ amount] a year, unless [role] approves more in writing.
• We don't give cash or gift cards to clients or vendors.
• We don't give a gift to anyone while a bid, proposal, contract renewal or dispute with their organization is open.
• Before we send a gift to a government employee, or to someone in a field with its own gift rules (finance, mortgage and title, insurance, health care, law), we check their limit first.
• Every gift goes in the gift log.

3. Receiving gifts.

• You may keep unsolicited gifts worth up to [$ amount] a year from any one source.
• Never accept cash, gift cards, or anything offered in exchange for business.
• Food sent to the team is shared in the office.
• A gift over the limit goes back with a thank-you note. If returning it would offend, give it to [role], who donates it and logs it.
• Tell [role] about every gift you receive within [number] days.

4. Gifts to employees. Gifts of cash or gift cards to employees go through payroll. Non-cash gifts to employees are approved by [role].

5. The gift log. For each gift given or received: the date, the person and their organization, the business relationship, what it was, what it cost or was worth, and why.

6. Questions. Ask [role] before you give or accept anything this policy doesn't cover. [Role] reviews this policy every year, in [month].

Why Each Line Is There: The Rules, Quoted

The policy's lines point to these texts. Your trade may add its own; the ones we have quoted are on client gift limits by industry.

"You can deduct no more than $25 for business gifts you give directly or indirectly to each person during your tax year."

IRS Publication 463 (2025), ch. 3 "Gifts", "For use in preparing 2025 Returns". Read October 29, 2026.

"Cash and cash equivalent fringe benefits (for example, gift certificates, gift cards, and the use of a charge card or credit card), no matter how little, are never excludable as a de minimis benefit."

IRS Publication 15-B (2026), "For use in 2026". Read October 29, 2026.

"An employee may accept unsolicited gifts having an aggregate market value of $20 or less per source per occasion, provided that the aggregate market value of individual gifts received from any one person under the authority of this paragraph (a) does not exceed $50 in a calendar year."

5 CFR 2635.204(a) (eCFR, up to date as of October 28, 2026). Read October 29, 2026.

This is information, not legal or tax advice. Check the current rule (or ask your tax professional, your counsel or, for a federal employee, the recipient's agency ethics official) before you send.

How Do You Decline a Gift Without Offending?

Ogletree Deakins' advice to recipients, from 2014: "You may politely decline a gift (and explain why you must decline it), and return the gift. If it would be awkward to decline the gift, you may turn it over to the audit department of your company for donation to a charity."

A short note does it. Two samples (our suggestion), to adapt:

Thank you so much for the thoughtful gift. Our company policy doesn't let us keep gifts of this kind, so I'm returning it with real thanks. Working with you is the best part, and that doesn't change.

Thank you for thinking of our team. Our gift policy asks us to pass gifts like this to charity, so it's going to [charity] in your name. We're grateful for the gesture and for the work we do together.

When a customer asks you for gifts. A poster from a sub-trade company on r/smallbusiness asked whether it is "normal for our customer to ask their vendors to supply prizes, treats, and vouchers for their Christmas party"; they had given "wifi push button door locks, drills, big tool boxes, golf bags, gift baskets", and "this will be the 5th time we have done this" (thread, October 2024). Three replies, as written:

• A decline in one paragraph: "We're a small business not operating on huge margins. If we were to donate to all our customers who ask, we'd have to increase prices to make that back. We prefer offering our services at a fair price without complications of donations and price adjustments."
• A routing rule from a commenter at a small company: "I set up a company email that is Fundingrequests@abccompany.com. Whenever I was asked for something, I said, 'Sure, here is an email. Send us what you need, and we will review it at our monthly meeting.'"
• The other side's policy, from a commenter who worked at a hospital: "Vendors could not provide gifts to any employee group in the hospital greater than $25 in value."

A written policy turns each of these into a sentence you can point to: "Our gift policy doesn't let us donate prizes; here is what we do instead."

What to Know Before You Order

• Gift limits. Each box is $35, delivered. Some employers and industries cap the gifts their people may accept; the limits, quoted from their sources: client gift limits by industry.
• One message per order. The printed card carries one message (up to 300 characters) and one sign-off for the whole order, greeting each person by first name. A group that needs different words is its own order; one box is a complete order.
• The treats. LINDOR truffles contain milk, soy and barley malt (gluten); read the labels.
• Where we ship. The lower 48 states and Washington, DC, except Texas for now. No Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, other US territories, APO/FPO or international. The order page flags any row we can't ship to, so you can fix it or take it out.

Where Personalized Gifts Delivered Fits in a Gift Policy

A policy works when the gift is easy to check against it. Every Personalized Gifts Delivered box is the same price, $35 per box, delivered, whether you send 1 or 50: the mug, the treats, the gift box, the card, the packing and the shipping in one figure, with no setup fee and no sales tax added at checkout. So the cost column of your gift log reads the same on every row, and checking a box against the limit your policy sets takes one glance.

What one order covers: a logo mug gift box with Ghirardelli cocoa, Lindt truffles and a personal card, shipped to each person's own address from one list, packed by hand in a plain white carton whose return address shows PersonalizedGiftsDelivered.com. You see the mug and every person's card before you pay. When the boxes ship, one email brings a spreadsheet of recipient, ship date, carrier, tracking number and $35 per box: the recipient, date and cost columns of your gift log, one row per person, already filled in. What the price includes: our FAQ.