The per-head spending question
The total budget matters less than the amount per person, and a low per-head figure buys less than it looks like on paper.
Check the numbers →You've been handed the corporate Christmas gifting. Here's what you need to check before you sign anything off.
Three of the questions on your desk have a wrong answer: how much to spend per head, the tax position on staff gifts, and the Bribery Act exposure on client gifts. Nine guides work through each decision in turn, none of it selling you a gift.
Go to the nine guidesThe three questions with a wrong answer
Budget, tax and bribery exposure are the three decisions in corporate gifting that can go wrong quietly, sometimes months after the gifts have gone out.
Staff gift tax rules
A gift to staff can be tax-free under the trivial benefits exemption, but only if it meets all four conditions HMRC sets out.
Read the rules →Bribery Act exposure for clients
A client gift is not automatically a Bribery Act problem, but the recipient's gift policy may set a stricter line than the law does.
Check the exposure →
Where to start
Nine decisions, answered one at a time
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PER-HEAD BUDGET
The per-head figure matters more than the total budget
A £5,000 budget spread across 250 people is £20 a head, which buys something, but not much.
How much to spend per head -
STAFF GIFTS AND TAX
A gift under £50 can escape tax, but four conditions attach
Miss one and the trivial benefits exemption does not apply, and the gift becomes a benefit in kind.
HMRC
Read the tax position on employee gifts -
CLIENT GIFTS
A hamper to a client is rarely a Bribery Act problem
It is far more often a gift-policy problem, and that policy belongs to the recipient.
Check the Bribery Act questions -
WORKFORCE DIVERSITY
Not every member of staff celebrates Christmas
A gifting plan built around Christmas by default excludes people before it has even been sent.
See the inclusive gifting guide -
LEAD TIMES
Personalisation is the step most budgets forget to time
Engraving, printing and packing all add days that a delivery date alone does not show.
Check lead times and personalisation -
SCALE
What works for twenty gifts can fail at two hundred
Address collection, dietary data and supplier coordination all become someone's job once volume rises.
See what scales and what does not -
CHOICE MODELS
A 'choice' gift sounds inclusive but creates real work
Someone still has to collect addresses, handle dietary data and chase the supplier on timing.
Read about vouchers and choice platforms -
THE CARD
The message on the card is read more than the gift
A generic line undoes a well-chosen gift faster than a modest gift with the right words.
Read on writing the card
What this site is for
This site sets out the practical answers for corporate Christmas gifting: no product lists, no supplier rankings, no affiliate links. If the job of sorting gifts for staff or clients has landed on your desk this year, the guides here are built to get you to a decision.
Three questions have a wrong answer
Most of corporate gifting comes down to judgement: what a client will appreciate, whether a particular gift says the right thing about the business. But three questions sit outside judgement, because getting them wrong carries a cost. How much you spend per head sets the tone before a single gift arrives, and the figure that matters is the one per person. The tax position on gifts to staff determines whether HMRC treats what you have bought as a taxable benefit, with conditions attached that most people buying gifts have never had reason to learn. And gifts to clients raise an actual Bribery Act 2010 question, one that a solicitor or your own compliance function is better placed to answer for your specific situation than any gifting guide, including this one.
Nine guides, each answering one decision
The guides on this site are organised around the decisions you actually have to make. Between them they cover budget arithmetic, the tax treatment of staff gifts, client-gift exposure under the Bribery Act, buying for a workforce that does not all celebrate Christmas, the lead times personalisation adds to an order, what holds up and what falls apart once a gift is scaled to hundreds of people, gifts that land badly and why, vouchers and choice platforms as an alternative to a physical gift, and what to actually write on the card. Each one is written to answer a single question and to tell you what to check next, so there is no fixed order you need to read them in.
Where to start
Start with whichever decision is most urgent for you. That is usually the budget, because it shapes every choice that follows, or the tax position, if staff gifts need sign-off before an order can go ahead, or lead times, if personalisation is involved and the calendar is already tight. None of the guides assume you have read the others first.
Lead times move first, because they can't be undone later
Budget and tax questions can still be adjusted once you've made a decision. A personalisation deadline that's already passed cannot be extended, whichever supplier you're working with.