Client and Employee Gifts in a GmbH 2026: €50 Limit and Correct Bookkeeping in Germany

Gifts are part of running a GmbH — wine baskets at Christmas, flowers for a birthday, small tokens for key clients. But not every gift is deductible, and not every gift can be passed on tax-free to the recipient. Germany’s Wachstumschancengesetz raised the deduction limit for gifts to business partners from €35 to €50 in 2024 — still in force in 2026. Here is the full guide for GmbH and UG founders.

Gifts to business partners: the €50 deduction limit

Your GmbH can deduct gifts to clients, suppliers or other business partners up to €50 per recipient and fiscal year as a business expense (§ 4(5) sentence 1 No. 1 of the Income Tax Act, EStG). Three rules apply:

• It is a hard limit (Freigrenze), not an allowance — spend €50.01 and you lose the deduction in full.
• If your GmbH can deduct input VAT, the limit is net; if not, it is gross.
• All gifts to the same recipient in a fiscal year are summed.

Example: you give a client a bottle of wine in May for €30 net and chocolates in December for €25 net — total €55. The €50 limit is breached, and both gifts become non-deductible.

Promotional items: under €10 net

Branded promotional items below €10 net per piece — pens, mugs, notebooks with your logo — do not count toward the €50 limit. They are fully deductible and posted to a separate account (SKR03: 4630, SKR04: 6610). The only requirement: they must clearly read as advertising (visible logo).

Flat taxation under § 37b EStG

A gift triggers tax for the recipient — client or employee. To shield your business partner, the GmbH can take on a flat 30 % tax under § 37b EStG. This is usually the cleaner route because:

• The recipient receives the gift tax-free.
• You can deduct the flat tax itself as a business expense — to the extent the gift was deductible.
• The flat tax applies uniformly across all gifts in a fiscal year — either all of them or none.

Plus 5.5 % solidarity surcharge and possibly church tax on top of the flat tax. You report it with your monthly payroll tax filing.

Gifts to employees: small attentions and benefits in kind

For employee gifts, German tax law distinguishes two categories.

Small attentions for personal occasions — up to €60 gross

Birthday, wedding, the birth of a child, work anniversary: gifts in kind up to €60 gross per occasion are exempt from wage tax and social security for the employee (R 19.6(1) of the Wage Tax Guidelines, LStR). Cash gifts do not qualify — they are always taxable.

Monthly benefits in kind — up to €50 gross

Independent of any occasion, you can pass each employee benefits in kind up to €50 gross per month tax- and social-security-free (§ 8(2) sentence 11 EStG) — e.g. fuel vouchers, prepaid benefit cards or meal vouchers.

Posting: which account, which input VAT?

In GmbH bookkeeping, gifts are split by recipient and value:

• Gifts ≤ €50 net to business partners → SKR03 4630 / SKR04 6610 (deductible). Input VAT recoverable.
• Gifts > €50 net to business partners → SKR03 4635 / SKR04 6620 (non-deductible). No input VAT recovery (§ 15(1a) UStG).
• Promotional items ≤ €10 net → SKR03 4630 / SKR04 6610. Input VAT recoverable.
• Employee gifts → SKR03 4140 / SKR04 6060 (small attentions / other benefits in kind).
• 30 % flat tax → SKR03 4639 / SKR04 6644.

In Norman, the AI detects gift receipts automatically and proposes the correct account, including a flat-tax accrual. Both SKR03 and SKR04 chart-of-accounts logic is built in. For the wider context of GmbH bookkeeping in Germany, see our dedicated guide.

Documentation: what you must keep on file

For the tax office to accept your gifts, you document for each one:

• Recipient name and address (mandatory for business partners).
• Occasion (e.g. “Ms. Müller birthday, key client XY”).
• Value with receipt (till receipt or invoice).
• Posting on a separate account as listed above.
• Recipient list for the flat tax — without it, § 37b does not apply.

If you give regularly, a simple gift log helps. For the broader question of what counts as a GmbH business expense, see our dedicated article.

Conclusion

€50 for business partners, €60 per occasion for employees, €50 monthly as benefits in kind — three thresholds, three accounts, three posting logics. A single cent over the line and the entire gift becomes worthless from a tax perspective. With Norman you post gifts automatically to the right account, monitor the limits per recipient and keep the flat tax in view. So a friendly gesture does not turn into a costly surprise at the next tax audit.