Under US Internal Revenue Service Code § 132(a)(4), “de minimis fringe” benefits provided by the employer can be excluded from the employee’s gross income.
For any property or service to qualify as a "de minimis fringe", it must be unusual or occasional in frequency, and its value cannot be a disguised form of compensation.
[3] Generally, the Internal Revenue Service considers the following three factors: De minimis fringe is defined in Internal Revenue Code section 132(e)(1) as any property or service given to an employee by the employer whose value, after taking account of the frequency provided, is so small as to make accounting for it unreasonable or administratively impracticable.
[5] Under Section 1.132-6(b)(1) of the Treasury Regulations, all similar fringes must be considered together to determine whether they are de minimis.
[10] While the Internal Revenue Service does not define "infrequently", gifts to employees on a quarterly basis would not qualify as a de minimis fringe benefit.