Chicago Association for Research and Education in Science
HONORARIA FOR VA EMPLOYEES POLICY

Federal Law Title 18 USC 209(a) prohibits a federal employee from receiving salary or any contribution to or supplementation of salary from any source other than the United States Government as compensation for services as an employee of the United States. While CARES is not responsible for monitoring the ethics of VA employees (except in regard to certain conflicts of interest) and CARES does not provide tax advice, the following information is provided for informational purposes. It is suggested that for authoritative determinations, a federal employee may wish to contact the Agency Ethics Officer located within VA Regional Counsel's Office at Hines.

Investigators or staff sometimes consider having an honorarium or speaker's fee directed to CARES as a donation in lieu of accepting it personally. This appears to be done in the belief that it; 1) relieves an investigator of the need to be certain that the subject of their presentation is not related to their official VA duties, 2) obviates the need to take annual leave or, 3) may allow avoidance of tax on the honoraria. None of these are necessarily true.

There is no exception for turning an honoraria or speaker’s fee into a donation to CARES in the form of an account which would be accessible to the person who generated the honoraria. In addition, it has been postulated that the IRS would likely consider the amounts earned as income any time there is a quid pro quo---an exchange of goods or services for payment or when the individual exercises control over the dispensation of payment. Such payments may be taxable to the investigator regardless of whether the check is made out to the investigator or to CARES.

One Exception: Federal ethics regulations allow federal employees to earn fees for presentations related to their official duties only if they are teaching a course requiring them to make multiple presentations during a program of education or training sponsored and funded by the federal government or by an institution of higher education, an elementary school or a secondary school. Earnings under this scenario can be accepted personally by the employee.

If an honorarium is offered to a federal employee and the presentation was made during duty hours or the presentation relates to the employee's official duties, no honorarium can be earned barring the "One Exception" detailed above.

If an honorarium is offered to a federal employee for a presentation performed during non-duty hours and on a subject having nothing to do with the employee's official duties, an honorarium can probably be accepted personally by the employee.

If there is any doubt in your mind as to whether or not you may accept an honorarium, it is suggested an opinion from the Ethics Officer could be useful.