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Office Christmas Party – How Much To Pay?

By Jim Symcox on Dec 7, 2007 in Party

Table of contents for The Office Party

Office Christmas Party – How Much To Pay?
How To Make Sure Your Office Christmas Do is a Success
Which Office Christmas Party And Who To Invite?

Office Christmas parties! Doesn’t your heart lift when you think about it? After all it’s an opportunity to make a complete fool of yourself drinking too much, photocopying bits of your anatomy and kissing the office temp in the stationery cupboard.

So you want to celebrate Christmas with your UK staff? The decisions you take could include:

How much can I afford to spend?
What’s the objective?
Should we sell tickets?
Should I hold the party in the office or outside?
Should we organise the party ourselves, ask the hotel/restaurant or event company to do it?
Should spouses/friends/customers/suppliers be invited?
How can we meet the objective(s)

How Much Can I Afford?

For quite a while there was a £75 annual amount per person that a company was allowed for staff entertainment. This allowance was actually not just for Christmas parties but also for any event during the company’s accounting year.

In one of his budgets the then UK Chancellor, Gordon Brown, doubled the amount to £150 per year.

That means for a company of 10 people, at the end of the accounting year £1,500 (including VAT) for any (not just Christmas) staff entertainment can be offset against company tax.

Before deciding how much you can afford you really need to think of the objectives for your Christmas party. After all you’re in business and every project has an objective!

Then once you’ve decided a budget canvas the staff to see what sort of party they’d like to attend. Remember you’ve set the budget so a party in Rio may not be possible.

Technorati tags: Office Party, Christmas Party, Budget