Benefits
The Small Benefit Exemption: up to five tax-free gifts worth €1,500
Last updated 16 October 2026
Your employer can give you up to five non-cash gifts or vouchers a year, worth €1,500 in all, tax-free. A benefit that goes over the limit is taxed in full.
A voucher or gift from your employer is normally a benefit in kind (a taxed perk). It is added to your pay and taxed with income tax, USC and PRSI. The Small Benefit Exemption lets employers give a few such rewards each year tax-free, within limits.
The limits
| Years | Number of benefits | Total value |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 to 2029 | Up to 5 | €1,500 |
| 2022 to 2024 | Up to 2 | €1,000 |
| Late 2015 to 2021 | 1 (2 under a Covid-era concession) | €500 |
The current limits are set in law until the end of 2029. A single gift can use the whole €1,500, or it can be spread over up to five.
What qualifies
- a voucher that can only be spent on goods or services, such as a shop or experience voucher
- a physical gift, such as a hamper or a piece of equipment you keep
What doesn't:
- cash, or a card that can be used to withdraw cash, even if you never do
- anything given in return for giving up salary (a salary sacrifice)
- a sixth benefit in the year, whatever its value
Going over the limit
The exemption covers benefits in the order you receive them. Your employer can't choose to tax an early one to keep the exemption for a bigger one later. If a single benefit is worth more than €1,500, all of it is taxed, not only the excess. A benefit that would take the year's total over the limit isn't covered, and is taxed in full.
For an employee on €50,000 in 2026, a single voucher:
| Voucher worth €1,500 | €0.00 |
| Voucher worth €1,600: income tax, USC and PRSI | €756.12 |
| What you keep from the €1,600 voucher | €843.88 |
The €1,500 voucher costs nothing in tax. The one worth €100 more leaves you about €656.12 worse off, because the whole value is taxed at your marginal rate.
Reporting
Since 2024, employers must report each tax-free small benefit to Revenue on or before the day they give it. Budget 2027 lets them report instead by the 14th of the following month, from 1 January 2027. You can see what your employer has reported in myAccount, under 'Expenses/Benefits'. A cash bonus is never covered: see how a bonus is taxed.
Work it out
Sources
- Revenue: Small Benefit Exemption: up to five benefits worth €1,500 a year from 2025 (checked 16/10/2026)
- Revenue: Taxable employer benefits (medical insurance, shares and others) (checked 16/10/2026)
General information, not tax advice. HeyPenny is not a tax agent.