Microsoft can certainly afford it, but the cost might not have been trivial considering that the company has over 200K employees. I don't know all the rules, bu

Microsoft can certainly afford it, but the cost might not have been trivial considering that the company has over 200K employees. I don't know all the rules, but people often have to pay taxes when getting gifts from companies; to avoid any bitter feelings, companies generally cover the taxes themselves so the gift appears "free". So I wouldn't be surprised if this benefit cost Microsoft millions of dollars per year.