CRA’s policy for free use by all employees of recreational facilities includes free ski passes for ski resort employees

CRA indicated that its general administrative policy, that there is no taxable benefit “where employees generally are permitted to use their employer's recreational facilities free of charge,” extended to a ski resort operator giving free season’s ski (and snowboarding) passes to all its employees (although there would be a taxable benefit to the extent that members of an employee's family were included). Furthermore, the CRA policy respecting the non-recognition of the first $500 of non-cash gifts made to an employee each year could apply if the employees were given the passes as a “Christmas gift” and “it is shown that the Season Pass is offered to the employee as a gift and not as compensation.”

Neal Armstrong. Summary of 24 June 2016 External T.I. 2015-0571471E5 Tr under s. 6(1)(a).