Employee Apparel - Branded Merchandise

When ordering Apparel:

1. All merchandise and apparel needs to be branded (only exception is for youth volunteers)
2. Do not use PCard or checking account for purchase of branded apparel and promotional items
3. You must submit artwork/mockup for approval to: Marissa Mullett (mullett.50@osu.edu) prior to ordering any item(s). She will facilitate the process of getting Ohio State's approval (from Brand Stewardship and Trademark and Licensing) for you.
4. Approval from #3 above must be submitted with your requisition in order to complete the process, along with the quote from vendor

Must use an approved contracted OSU vendor through BuckeyeBuy Marketplace. Link to suppliers. These suppliers will be approved by branding.

If the office is paying for the apparel, the Employee Non-cash Reporting Form must be attached to requisition. Each employee that receives any non-cash item must be listed on the form. Only one form needed per Requisition.

If the employee is paying personally for part of an order (option 2 below), the office needs to charge sales tax on the personally paid amount.

• All items received by employees from the University (including apparel) are reported to the payroll tax office. Non-cash items of $100 or more, in the aggregate, are taxable income to the employee. This $100 threshold for non-cash items applies to the cumulative value of all non-cash items provided to an employee during a calendar year.
• Link to Expenditures Policy - policy guidance for non-cash items received by employees
• Employees should never be given gift cards or gift certificates that hold cash value.
• Example of taxable items: OSU apparel, incentives from YP4H, pins from the Dean, etc.…

There is no central funding for employee apparel. The $100 threshold is for tax reporting purposes only. Any apparel given to employees must come from the ordering unit budget.

All apparel must be properly branded and purchased via requisition through a contracted supplier available for ordering through the BuckeyeBuy Marketplace in Workday.

We have three options for purchase:

1. University pays for the apparel for an employee and the purchase is reported on the non-cash award spreadsheet and attached to the requisition.
   1. Ext Ops pulls the sheet from the requisition and stores in a master file
   2. File is shared with the Payroll Tax Office for upload into Workday.
   3. Employee will see taxable income reported on December paycheck for the full value of items received if the aggregate of non-cash awards received by the employee during the calendar year exceeds $100.
2. Employee purchases apparel from the ordering unit in combination with gift from unit.
   1. Example: Unit covers $50 for each employee. An employee wants $75 worth of items. $50 is reported to payroll tax office from non-cash spreadsheet, employee writes check for $25+sales tax.
      1. non-cash award form for tax reporting submitted for first $50 of order
      2. employee writes personal check to office including local sales tax on the remaining $25 of the order
3. Personal Purchase through Extension BSN Sportsware Storefront
   1. Extension will provide a storefront for personal purchases of branded apparel three or four times a year.
   2. This option is for personal purchase only, no PCard or personal reimbursement of expense