Kalamazoo College policy prohibits the purchase of gift cards and gift certificates, and College funds cannot be used to buy gift cards or gift certificates.

The Internal Revenew Service considers gift cards and certificates to be payments of cash. Payments to employees must go through the payroll department. Payments to non-employees must be reported as non-employee compensation. The IRS regulations make an exception for a token gift ("de minimis") when the cost of the gift is less than $25, but the gift cannot be in the form of cash, gift card or gift certificates.

These guidelines are in place to prevent IRS penalties for all parties involved. College policy is in place to avoid the complicated accounting that results from the transfer of gift cards and gift certificates.