‘Tis the season to celebrate our loved ones, and also for employers to show how much they care.Whether by throwing a Christmas bash or handing out extra cash, businesses around the world are broadly expected to offer their dedicated staff a festive token of their appreciation. And who deserves more ...
‘Tis the season to celebrate our loved ones, and also for employers to show how much they care.
Whether by throwing a Christmas bash or handing out extra cash, businesses around the world are broadly expected to offer their dedicated staff a festive token of their appreciation.
And who deserves more recognition than the workers who keep our healthcare systems afloat?
Yet, the senior management team at one hospital apparently decided that rather than boost their staff’s pay or treat them to a slap-up meal, they would provide them with…
Potatoes.
The questionable move was broadcast to social media by an X/Twitter user who calls herself Amanda B.
She explained dejectedly: “My work is doing a potato bar as our Christmas bonus. I’m literally getting a hospital potato as a bonus.”
She then added: “They also said it has a $15 (£11.85) value so it will be taxed on our next check. Does anyone need an assistant so I can just quit right now?”
Capitalism is starting to feel like a massive piss-take. You've got corps laughing all the way to the bank with billions in profits feeding their employees with fucking potatoes.
Here is a little something from the IRS pub 525 about bonuses.
Bonuses and awards. Bonuses or awards you receive for outstanding work are included in your income and should be shown on your Form W-2. These include prizes such as vacation trips for meeting sales goals. If the prize or award you receive is goods or services, you must include the FMV of the goods or services in your income. However, if your employer merely promises to pay you a bonus or award at some future time, it isn’t taxable until you receive it or it’s made available to you.
So do they really believe the fair market value of a potato is $12? The IRS doesn't go by retail price.
The FMV for a pound of russet potatoes is $2.50 soo yeah no they are doing too much and should be reported.
Meals and lodging
You don't include in your income the value of meals and lodging provided to you and your family by your employer at no charge if the following conditions are met.
The meals are:
Furnished on the business premises of your employer, and
Furnished for the convenience of your employer.
I remember the week after I saved a client forty five large in taxes, my boss gave me a ten dollar gift card to Walmart. I don't have many kind things to say about that boss.
Very much a theme this year. My company normally gives equity (that cashes out over 3 years ofc) every end of year for the past 4-5 years. This year however, no equity allotments announced, instead we get a floor pizza party with ice cream. People are less than enthused.
It’s the Independent, not spam. Indy100 is part of the Independent.
so, ok, I looked, and yeah, I see this "indy100" site is indeed part of a business called "The Independent" which carries the name of a former newspaper.
But this story, like most of the content on indy100, appears to have no basis in reality. It is not "news", it is dishonest garbage pretending to be factual for the purpose of selling the audience's attention to advertisers. aka spam.
The best part is that you don't dare question what you do get, or you receive the "well, at least it's something". Yeah, I guess so, but if the intent is to make the employee feel valued it's not working very well. I do have to say that a baked potato is still better than some things I've seen posted before.
Did that article have blank templates to fill in tweets? It seemed like there was a quota of tweets the author had to fill in the spaces for and missed one.
My previous employer's Christmas 'bonuses' included a single plastic kids bike pedal, a spray-painted (nice shade of orange) spanner, and fake money. I'd take the potato any day.
I once got my old boss a potato for his birthday, it was a 25 dollar gold coated potato though. I dont see the gold one anymore.
https://potatoparcel.com/
This is terrible, but the company doesn't need to tax them on this any more than your company taxes you when they bring in pizza for everyone. They're doing it because...they're dumb.
I got a hundred dollar gift card and a decent bottle of bourbon. But those were more personal gifts than company paid bonuses.
Our bonuses happen in late October and generally equate to about three percent of base annual pay. So looking at hours I work roughly fifty seven weeks a year and get paid for roughly fifty three and a half of them.
Still, the bourbon is always nice. I regifted the card because I really dislike dealing with all the stupid terms and conditions that come with gift cards, so I'll let somebody else deal with that.