$25 per recipient per year is the most a US business can deduct for gifts, and a federal employee can accept only $20 per occasion. Within limits like those, the corporate gifts people keep are ones they use up: food from a named farm or region, a candle, or a small box of pantry goods, sent without a logo.
Promotional-product catalogs push engraved tumblers and branded fleece, and those end up in a drawer. A jar of marmalade is finished within a month, which suits a thank-you perfectly well. Nobody asked the gift to be a billboard.
What makes a corporate gift worth keeping?
It's something the person would have bought for themselves on a good day. Food and small comforts qualify, especially when some thought has gone into where they come from.
Place helps more than price. A jar from a named variety and a named town gives the recipient something to say when they open it, and it shows the sender chose it. That's easier with food than with objects, because food is tied to where it was grown.
A large logo turns a gift into advertising. A random catalog assortment tells the recipient nobody chose it, and anything that needs assembly, charging or the right size puts work on the person you meant to thank.
Who gets what, and roughly what to spend
| Recipient | What works | Our suggested spend | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| A single client contact | A pantry gift of one or two jars | $15–$25 | Stays inside the IRS deduction and most client policies |
| A client team or office | One larger box for the break room | $60–$120 | Shared food is gone within days |
| Employees across locations | The same small gift, shipped to each home | $15–$50 each | Nobody has to carry it home from the office |
| Executives, board, donors | A fuller gift box or fragrance set | $85–$150 | Fewer recipients, more personal |
| Conference attendees or speakers | Something light and tiny | Under $15 | Has to fit in a carry-on |
How much can a business deduct for gifts?
Twenty-five dollars per person per tax year, under IRS Publication 463. Spend $80 on a client and the deduction is still $25. You and your spouse count as one taxpayer if you both give to the same person, and so do a partnership and its partners.
Packaging and shipping usually sit outside that $25. Gift wrapping, packaging, insuring and mailing are incidental costs and are generally left out, as long as they don't add substantial value; an ornamental basket worth a lot compared with the fruit inside it isn't incidental.
A gift addressed to a company counts as a gift to the people who use it. The publication's worked example is three $80 gourmet baskets sent to a firm and taken home by three executives: the deduction is $75, or $25 for each person.
Packaged food counts as a gift. When an item could be either, the IRS generally calls it entertainment, but packaged food or drink given to a customer to use later counts as a gift. Items costing $4 or less that carry your business name and are handed out widely, like pens, are exempt from the limit. None of this is tax advice; your accountant decides how gifts are booked.
Client gift policies and legal limits
Many recipients can't accept a generous gift, so find out before you settle on a price. These are the limits written into federal rules:
| Who | Limit | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Any business deducting a gift | $25 per recipient per tax year | IRS Publication 463 |
| Federal executive-branch employees | $20 per occasion, $50 a year from one source; never cash | 5 C.F.R. § 2635.204 |
| Staff of another broker-dealer | $300 per person per year since March 30, 2026 | FINRA Rule 3220 |
| Private companies, state and local employers | Their own policy | Ask the recipient's office |
For federal employees, the Department of the Interior's ethics office gives a plain summary of the rule on unsolicited gifts. A single jar of marmalade fits under it; a $95 box does not.
FINRA's Rule 3220 covers gifts to people at other firms given in connection with their employer's business. The ceiling rose from $100 to $300, and gifts are valued at cost, leaving out taxes and delivery.
If you don't know a company's policy, ask your contact's assistant or office manager. It's an ordinary question, and it spares the recipient from having to send your gift back.
When to order corporate holiday gifts
By early December, since the carriers' own deadlines fall a week before Christmas. For delivery by December 25 within the lower 48 states in 2026, USPS recommends mailing by December 17 for Ground Advantage, December 18 for Priority Mail, and December 19 for Priority Mail Express.
Work backward from those dates. A custom order needs a quote and a production window, the maker needs time to pack, and then the parcel travels. A standard order from us leaves within 1–3 business days, Monday to Friday, and most go out within 24 hours. Bulk and custom orders are quoted against your date, so give it to us when you ask. Anything containing fragrance is excluded from expedited and international air service, so a perfume gift can't be rescued with overnight shipping. Our complimentary shipping on orders of $50 or more doesn't cover heavy glass items such as marmalade.
Many offices empty out in the last week of December. Send food gifts to wherever people will actually be.
Shipping one order to many addresses
A gift list of home addresses needs one order and one payment, with each gift going straight to its recipient. Our multi-address shipping does that: you fill a single cart with the whole list, give each item or group its own address at checkout, and pay once. We ship within the US and to Canada and select Western European countries.
Longer lists get bulk pricing on qualifying orders. The corporate gifts page asks for your rough quantity and date, the products you're considering, and a budget if you have one. There's more on sending one order to many addresses in an earlier post.
Matching our gifts to those limits
The Medalists comes in just under the $25 line at $24.99: two 11 oz jars, our Silver-medal Navel Orange and double-Bronze Minneola Tangelo. Between them they hold three of the 8 honors we won at the 2026 World Marmalade Awards. Our family has grown Minneola tangelos in Redlands since the variety was developed in the 1930s, which gives the recipient a story to go with the jar.
A single 11 oz marmalade at $12.99 stays under the $20 federal limit.
For board members and top clients where no cap applies, the Gift Box Sampler ($95) packs two medium fragrance bottles and an essential oil with a lip balm 4-pack, one marmalade and a Gill Orange Soap. Because two of those items are fragrance, it can't travel by expedited air, so order it first.
Photo by Javier Miranda on Unsplash.
