Ethics Office Advises on Accepting Entertainment

The Office of Government Ethics has issued guidance for federal employees on how to report their use of someone else’s skybox or private suite when attending an activity such as a concert or sporting event. When reporting the value of such entertainment, employees should add the market value of the most expensive publicly available ticket to the event to the market value of the food, parking and other tangible benefits provided in connection with the gift of attendance, according to DO-07-003. It cautioned that each tangible benefit included in the gift of free admission is not a separate gift that may be excluded from the filer’s report based on its individual market value.