6 Financially Savvy Things to do With a Christmas Fruitcake by HBS

As your financial advisors, Horizon Business Consultants want to offer these free financial fruitcake tips as part of our Christmas gift to you and yours. God bless you and all those that labor over fruitcake preparation this season.

1. Donate your fruitcake to charity.

You must select a charitable organization that is qualified and can write you a receipt for the value of the cake. Assuming it is a top quality cake we estimated the cash value of your average fruit cake at $61.23.

You will need to use itemized deduction on your Schedule A in your tax returns.

2013 Tax Deductions

2. Give your fruitcake out as wages or tips.

This one can be tricky. You can’t deduct tips to your hair dresser or car valet. However, you can deduct tips to part-time or contract employees like your roofer, childcare provider or lawn care professional. The IRS considers bonuses, perks or fruitcakes in this case, to be employee compensation.

3. Go Green with your Fruitcake

Instead of buying those expensive ornamental reflectors to guide your guests in and out of the office parking lot simply slice your fruitcake into 8 equal pieces. Apply a couple layers of shellac and place them on either side of the drive.

This qualifies as a repair to your business and the IRS allows 10 percent, of the repair as a deduction. If your upgrade is reasonable, you can depreciate a proportional share of the cost annually.

4. Claim that you can see the face of Elvis in it and sell it on Ebay.

Unless you sell more than 200 items or $20,000 in gross sales on Ebay in a year this is tax free income!

5. Use it for Marketing

Place the fruitcake in a piece of net. Tie a rope around the top and sling it over a tree branch at your closest city park Put a sign with your company logo directly beneath the sack. Birds, squirrels and other small animals will enjoy the fruity delight for weeks.

Take pictures of the small woodland creatures as they frolic around the cake and ta da! You have the perfect headline for the local paper. Good PR and all gifts to City Parks are considered tax-deductible!

6. Have a Corn Hole Game Contest at the Christmas Party

Simply prop your fruitcake up at an angle. Draw a starting line on the carpet with a piece of chalk, grab a bean bag and you have a colorful corn hole game.

The cost of corporate Christmas parties (such as food and drink) are exempt from fringe benefit tax if they are offered on a business day at your office and consumed by current em

Tax deduction 2012

Libby Lucas | 12/18/2012

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6 Financially Savvy Things to do With a Christmas Fruitcake by HBS