Ikea gave new bicycles as holiday gifts to all 12,400 of its U.S. employees (press release; New York Daily News; Philadelphia Inquirer; San Francisco Chronicle). Mary O’Keeffe (Union College) blogs the tax consequences in “There’s No Such Thing as a Free Bike”:
Those “gift” bikes could turn out to be very expensive, because the IRS does not treat it as a “gift” but as a “taxable fringe benefit.” … Bottom line: some (many?) Ikea employees may wind up paying more in tax than this bike is worth to them.
This also gives me an excuse to blog Ikea’s award-winning advertising campaign, You Will Always Find Me in the Kitchen at Parties:
