For delivery drivers, couriers, postal workers, during the summers, people might leave out cold drinks or hand them bottles of water when they deliver something. In the winter, during the hardest season for delivery people, they'll leave out snacks for them to pick up, or give them snack bags, chocolates, or even non-cash items in gift bags around Christmas along with food or goodies of one kind or another.
How are these to be handled on IRS taxes at the end of the year? Are these treated as gifts, or are they treated as non-cash tips that fair market value has to be established for each item, and then listed somewhere in the tax return? Or is there some other category they belong in? Please advise, and thank you!
