The short answer
Choose the gift first, then look at its price. A figure picked in advance tends to buy whatever happens to fit it; a gift chosen for the person can be costed in a minute, because every size has its price beside it on the name print page and the portrait page, with UK delivery included.
The Personalised Name Print From £15.99 Poster
A personalised print of their name, job, years and workplace, from the poster price up.
See all sizes and prices- A company: HMRC publishes a figure for long-service awards, set out below. It's the only number on this page with a source behind it.
- An office collection: divide the price of the gift by the number of people giving. Organising a group retirement gift walks through it.
- One person buying alone: start from the relationship, as in the section further down, and browse personalised retirement gifts for the formats.
How much a company can spend on a retirement gift
An employer marking a long career has one published figure to work to. Under HMRC's rules for long-service awards, a company does not have to report or pay tax on a non-cash award when the employee has worked there for at least 20 years, the award is worth less than £50 for each year of service, and they have had no long-service award in the last 10 years. HMRC's own example is an award worth up to £1,000 for 20 years' service.
Cash is treated differently: HMRC counts a cash award as part of the employee's earnings, so it goes through payroll with tax and National Insurance taken off. A gift they can keep avoids that.
An office collection
Set a suggested amount, not a fixed one, make it easy to skip, and let people give privately. The rest is division. Our prices include UK delivery, so the price on the product page divided by the number of people is the whole cost to each of them, with nothing added at checkout.
Acas points out that putting pressure on someone to retire is likely to be age discrimination, which is one more reason to start the collection only once the person has announced the date themselves.
What to spend by relationship
A colleague you worked closely with
Between colleagues, the unframed name print at A4 or A3 is the one that fits without discussion: their name, profession, years of service and workplace, set in type, ready for a frame of their own choosing.
A friend
A framed print arrives ready to hang, at A3 or A2, so there's nothing left for them to organise. It's the same layout as the unframed print, with the framing done.
A family member
Family usually knows which wall it is going on, and that settles the size more than the budget does. A canvas comes in four sizes from 30x40cm to 60x80cm, and a framed canvas in three, up to 50x70cm. Framed retirement art sets out how they differ.
A spouse or partner
For the biggest wall, the unframed print goes up to 70x100cm and the canvas to 60x80cm. The name print and the portrait both come as a framed canvas up to 50x70cm, and only the portrait is also made as a metal print, up to the same size.
AI-made example The Retirement Portrait From £119.99 Framed canvas
A photograph of them, their workplace or their garden, turned into art in one of five styles and framed.
See all sizes and pricesWhere personalisation changes the value
The name print carries four facts nobody else could supply: their name, their profession, their years of service and where they worked. Filling in all four costs nothing extra, because the price is set by the format and size alone. A hamper carries none of them.
If the leaving do is very soon
Anything printed is made to order: 2 to 4 working days to make it, then 2 to 5 in the post, so 4 to 9 working days in all. If the date is closer than that, the digital download is sent by email, with nothing printed or posted, and can be printed locally.
