Way to Build Employee Morale
At the office holiday party of doom, starvation, and unnecessary cheese, we were given $50 gift cards, which was about the only really good thing to come out of the experience.
This was added to our paycheck stubs for tax purposes; fair enough, I suppose. You get taxed on bonuses, overtime, and so on, and I suppose that a gift from your employer falls into the same category.
However, how the hell is it that I wound up paying $21 tax on a $50 gift card? (And why is it listed on my pay stub as being $54.15? Am I paying for the cost of my employer acquiring the gift card, as well, and then being taxed on it? Am I being charged $4.15 for the cost of the be-logo-ed travel mug we also were given? If the latter, may I return the travel mug and get my $4.15 back, please?)
WTF? A nearly 40% tax rate? Why would the rate be higher for a gift card than for regular income? This is ridiculous.
One might think that you complain too much.
December 24th, 2007 | #
Fair enough, Anon. I mean, I did wind up almost $30 ahead. One might also say, though, that it would’ve been nice to have some warning that our actual paychecks would be short during a time when many people’s expenses go up. If I were living paycheck to paycheck on an extremely tight budget, the missing $20+ from your checking account might’ve meant that a bill payment came back as insufficient funds, and a cascade of bank fees could easily have wound up costing more than the gift card brought.
A little warning about the paychecks being short would’ve been a good thing, that’s all.
December 28th, 2007 | #