Policy
VPF Buying and Paying 5.03 - Human Subject Payments
Human subjects—voluntary participants in research studies—can be paid by gift card with a limit of $100 per person, per study. This policy applies to electronic and physical gift cards.
$100 or Less: Use Procurement Card to Purchase Gift Cards
You can use your ProCard to purchase gift cards for payment of $100 or less to a human subject.
If your payment to a human subject is greater than $100, it must be made by check (see below).
Before buying gift cards to pay human subjects (cards valued at $100 or less), ask your department administrator or ProCard verifier to send an email to procard@mit.edu with your name indicating that you will be making gift card purchases. This one-time action will enable you to buy gift cards with the ProCard either electronically or through a retail outlet.
Note: If you are buying American Express Gift Cheques directly from American Express, email procard@mit.edu before you make the purchase to ensure the transaction is handled properly. This step is required each time you make a purchase from American Express.
Estimate how many cards and of what value you will need for the research project.
Then, use your ProCard to purchase gift cards and provide details to your card verifier (as you would any ProCard purchase). Gift card purchases should be charged to G/L account 421572.
Establish a safe and secure place to store cards in your office or lab.
Work with department or lab administrators to create an internal control process for documenting card distribution. Use this Excel Human Subject Gift Card Accounting Form to log gift card distribution, or create one within your lab’s reporting systems. If creating/using your own, ensure you capture the following information:
- Principal investigator
- Protocol
- Date
- Name (or participant number)
- Amount paid
- Last four digits of the card
- Type of card
- Receipt number from the ProCard purchase
If you have gift cards left over at the conclusion of the research, create a journal voucher entry to credit the research account for the value of the remaining cards, and debit a general department account. You may then use these cards on another research grant by charging the appropriate amount to the new research cost object and crediting the general department account. These cards should only be used to pay human subjects.
More Than $100: Pay By Check
To pay a human subject by check, complete the Payment for Human Subject Form and be sure to provide the subject’s name, address, and your signature.
If the payment is to a U.S. citizen, the subject’s Social Security number must also be provided on the form. MIT does not withhold taxes on these payments.*
To pay a human subject who is a foreign national, be sure to provide the subject’s type of visa and country. Due to tax reporting requirements, these payments are subject to 30 percent federal tax withholding.
Send completed forms via campus mail to VPF Accounts Payable NE49-4000, attention Denise LeBlanc. Do not scan and email forms.
*Note: If an individual is paid more than $600 in a calendar year by MIT as a human subject (from one lab or multiple labs), the Institute is required to provide a Form 1099-MISC to the recipient for tax filing and send a copy of the Form 1099-MISC to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and to the Massachusetts Department of Revenue.