North Macedonia has no tax-free allowance for employee gifts at all. Not a small one, not a seasonal one, none. Every denar of value an employer hands an employee, whether it's cash, a voucher, or a branded hoodie, is taxable income from the first denar, and there's no New Year or holiday exception to soften that. This puts North Macedonia in the same position as a handful of other countries in this series where there's simply no threshold to plan a gifting budget around.
Why every employee gift is taxable
North Macedonia's Law on Personal Income Tax sets out, in Article 12, an exhaustive list of income types exempt from personal income tax. It's a closed list, and employer gifts to employees aren't on it. Anything an employer gives an employee outside that list gets added to ordinary taxable income and taxed the same way salary is.
That applies equally to cash and in-kind gifts. Vouchers, goods, and services handed to an employee are valued at market price and taxed identically to a cash payment of the same value, there's no more favourable treatment for a physical gift over a cash bonus. And because there's no cap or allowance to begin with, there's no "excess-only" mechanic either, the kind of rule you see in other countries where only the amount above a threshold gets taxed. In North Macedonia the entire value is taxed, from the first denar, every time.
No holiday or New Year exception
It's worth addressing this directly because it's the question that comes up most: no, a New Year or Christmas gift package to employees doesn't get any special treatment. This isn't a grey area or an unconfirmed point, a Macedonian accounting firm addressing exactly this scenario has confirmed that seasonal gift packages are fully taxable, with no seasonal carve-out built into the law. There's no separate allowance for children's gifts either, another provision that shows up in several neighbouring countries but not here.
If your company has been budgeting a New Year gifting round on the assumption that it falls under some kind of festive exemption, that assumption doesn't hold in North Macedonia. The tax treatment is the same in December as it is in June.
12 gift ideas
Since there's no threshold to design around, the sensible approach is to pick gifts that are genuinely useful and well made, and to budget for their full market value showing up as taxable income on the payslip. Here are 12 branded merchandise options, priced in MKD, with materials, branding methods, and minimum order quantities.
1. Hoodie – The Rex
A heavyweight 280 gsm organic cotton hoodie that gets worn long after any gifting occasion is forgotten, and one of the most popular items in the catalogue.
- Material: 90% organic cotton, 10% polyester.
- Branding: embroidery, print, or patches.
- Order: MOQ 100 · from 2,466 MKD/unit.
2. Sports Socks
A low-cost, high-smile item that works well for a whole-team gesture without much per-head budget.
- Material: 80% cotton, 17% polyamide, 3% elastane.
- Branding: knitted-in logo zones.
- Order: MOQ 100 · from 246 MKD/unit.
3. Recycled Steel Bottle
A double-walled bottle made from recycled steel: genuinely useful, and a sustainability talking point in one gift.
- Material: recycled stainless steel.
- Branding: laser engraving or print.
- Order: MOQ 50 · from 677 MKD/unit.
4. A5 Notebook
A well-made notebook still earns its place on most desks, whether for meeting notes or as a simple desk accessory.
- Material: FSC-certified paper, PU cover.
- Branding: debossed or printed logo on the cover.
- Order: MOQ 100 · from 282 MKD/unit.
5. Premium Tote Bag
A sturdy tote leaves the office with people, on the commute, at the market, giving the branding real visibility relative to its price.
- Material: 270gsm cotton.
- Branding: print or custom straps.
- Order: MOQ 100 · from 396 MKD/unit.
6. Knitted Scarf
A genuinely useful winter gift for the colder months, with woven branding that reads as a step above a printed logo, and no seasonal tax angle to worry about either way.
- Material: 80% viscose, 20% polyester.
- Branding: woven label.
- Order: MOQ 100 · from 471 MKD/unit.
7. Baseball Cap
A reliable pick for outdoor events and company outings; an embroidered logo tends to look more premium than the price tag suggests.
- Material: 100% cotton.
- Branding: embroidery.
- Order: MOQ 100 · from 513 MKD/unit.
8. Espresso Mug
A good espresso mug earns daily use at the office coffee machine, putting a logo somewhere people see multiple times a day.
- Material: glazed ceramic, dishwasher and microwave safe.
- Branding: printed or laser-etched logo.
- Order: MOQ 108 · from 519 MKD/unit.
9. Bamboo Tea Bottle
A bamboo exterior over a durable stainless steel interior gives a warmer look than an all-metal bottle, and works well as a mid-range gift.
- Material: stainless steel, bamboo.
- Branding: laser engraving or print.
- Order: MOQ 50 · from 1,150 MKD/unit.
10. RollTop Backpack
A water-resistant backpack with a laptop compartment that quickly becomes someone's everyday bag: a natural pick for a bigger single gift, such as a milestone anniversary.
- Material: GRS-certified recycled PU, water-resistant.
- Branding: print or embroidery.
- Order: MOQ 25 · from 1,511 MKD/unit.
11. Noise-Cancelling Headphones
A genuine step up in perceived value, and one of the pricier items on this list, so it's best reserved for a milestone gift rather than a routine one, especially since its full value counts toward taxable income either way.
- Material: recycled ABS, ANC + ENC, foldable.
- Branding: digital print or doming.
- Order: MOQ 50 · from 1,504 MKD/unit.
View Noise-Cancelling Headphones →
12. Wireless Powerbank
A magnetic wireless powerbank in recycled ABS plastic is genuinely useful for any commute or business trip, and a practical mid-range choice.
- Material: recycled ABS plastic.
- Branding: pad print or digital print.
- Order: MOQ 50 · from 1,131 MKD/unit.
What about client gifts?
Client and business-partner gifts sit under a completely different rule than employee gifts. North Macedonia's Law on Profit Tax groups gifts together with hospitality, vacation, sport, recreation, and entertainment spending under a single category: репрезентација, or representation costs.
The rule for that whole bundled category is a 90/10 split: 90% of representation costs are non-deductible and get added back to the company's taxable profit base, only the remaining 10% is deductible. There's no separate per-gift value cap to track, it's purely this 90/10 split applied to the total representation spend for the period.
VAT compounds this. Where an employer gives goods to employees, or otherwise for non-business purposes, that's treated as a deemed taxable supply, meaning output VAT applies as though the goods had been sold. And separately, input VAT paid on representation costs, which explicitly include gifts, is completely blocked: it cannot be reclaimed at all, regardless of the gift's value. There's no small-value or samples carve-out in the primary VAT law that would soften this for domestic gifting.
A separate law you might see referenced
North Macedonia does have a Law on Inheritance and Gift Tax, and it's easy to stumble across it while researching this topic and assume it's relevant. It isn't, at least not here. That law governs private, civil-law gifts between individuals, family transfers, inheritances, and similar personal transactions. It has nothing to do with employer-to-employee gifts or business gifts to clients, which fall entirely under the Law on Personal Income Tax and the Law on Profit Tax covered above. Don't let the similar-sounding name cause confusion between the two.
Common mistakes
- Assuming a New Year or holiday gift gets special tax treatment. It doesn't. There's no seasonal carve-out in North Macedonian law, a holiday gift package is taxed exactly the same as a gift given in any other month.
- Confusing the civil Inheritance and Gift Tax law with corporate gift taxation. The Law on Inheritance and Gift Tax covers private, family-level gifts. Employer gifts to employees or clients are governed separately, by the Law on Personal Income Tax and the Law on Profit Tax.
- Assuming client gift VAT is at least partly recoverable. It isn't. Input VAT on representation costs, which explicitly include gifts, is fully blocked, not partially, regardless of how the 90/10 profit-tax deduction split is applied.
This article is general information, not tax or legal advice. North Macedonian tax law changes, and individual circumstances vary, so confirm the current rules with a local accountant or tax advisor before running a gifting programme.
Planning a gifting programme for your North Macedonian team? Talk to Sunday about sourcing, branding, and shipping any of the items above, from a single small batch to a company-wide rollout.
