Are holiday gifts or gift cards from my employer taxable in Ontario?

Generally, yes — a holiday gift or gift card from your employer is treated as a taxable benefit under the general rule that almost any benefit provided because of your employment counts as income unless a specific exception applies. Gift cards in particular are often treated similarly to cash, since they can typically be used flexibly like money, which makes them harder to fit into more favourable treatment than a genuinely modest, occasional non-cash item.

That said, CRA does have a long-standing administrative policy that treats certain modest non-cash gifts and awards from an employer more favourably, allowing some gifts to be received without triggering a taxable benefit, subject to specific dollar limits and conditions. This is an administrative accommodation rather than a broad exemption for anything called a "gift," and it depends on the item actually being non-cash, modest in value, and meeting the other conditions CRA sets out — a holiday gift card, precisely because it functions like cash, often doesn't fit as comfortably into this favourable treatment as a genuinely non-cash item would.

Given how easy it is to get this wrong, anyone relying on this treatment — employer or employee — should check the specific current conditions and limits before assuming a gift or gift card falls outside taxable income.