Taxes, gift from employer help

[Molly Meow]

Our 2009 taxes are ready to be filed, except one small thing:

In June, my mother shattered her ankle while my father was out of town. My dad asked DH and I to go up and take care of her. DH took a couple of days off of work. We were planning to drive. DH's boss decided to gift us plane tickets so that DH would be back earlier than we planned and rested.

The tickets totaled $1324 and are reported on the W2 in box 14 as "gift." I've been attempting to find out if we need to add this into our income, but none of the employer gift rules seem to apply to this situation. We really don't have the money to get an accountant for our otherwise simple 1040EZ return.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

 

[Art 1]

My guess and only a guess is that it is income.

 

[Bluestars]

I believe that amount is already included in his income, but is also listed separately. I am at home and not able to look at my W2 right now since it is at work. But our company gives out visa gift cards and other things that are taxable. They are listed on the employees' W-2s as a non-cash, but I believe the amount is also included in the boxes subject to federal and FICA taxes.

Can you tell by looking at his W2 if the amount for the tickets is included in his amount subject to federal? Oh and yes, a gift given by an employer to an employee is taxable income.

 

[m&m's mom]

If the guy gave it to him through the company, then yes, taxes are owed and it probably is already in box 1,3 & 5 etc.
If he gave them to him personally then that is another story.
This would be viewed as a Taxable Fringe Benefit I would think.