You Paid Customers to Send You Customers: When Referral Rewards Trigger 1099-MISC Reporting in 2026
IRS referral rewards are taxable income with no purchase required; for 2026 you must file Form 1099-MISC once one customer tops $2,000.
#gift-cards
Gift Cards
Gift card and stored-value program accounting for retailers, covering gift-card liability and deferred revenue, breakage estimation and revenue recognition, monthly balance reconciliation, POS controls, and unclaimed-property escheatment obligations
Your $8 Fish Actually Costs $16: Sushi and Omakase Restaurant Bookkeeping
Sushi food cost hides in fish yield loss of 45-60%, making $8/lb wholesale fish cost $16/lb usable. This guide covers yield testing, rice portion control, prepaid omakase deferred revenue, gift card breakage rules, itamae labor economics against the 60% prime cost benchmark, and a weekly bookkeeping routine for sushi operators.
The $25 Business Gift Rule: What You Can Deduct, and Why Employee Gift Cards Are Wages
Federal law caps the business-gift deduction at $25 per recipient per year — a limit unchanged since 1962 — while incidental shipping, wrapping, and $4-or-less branded items sit outside it. Employee gifts follow different rules: gift cards and cash equivalents are always taxable wages, and only small, infrequent tangible items qualify as de minimis fringe benefits.
Gift Card Breakage and Unclaimed Property: A Retailer's Practical Guide
An unredeemed gift card stays a customer liability until the facts support otherwise. This guide shows retailers how to book gift cards as deferred revenue, reconcile balances monthly, recognize breakage as a defensible estimate, and preserve the card-level data that state unclaimed-property (escheatment) filings require.