[astraelraen]

Most US taxpayers that this will "help" are small businesses that utilize the cash basis of accounting. There is no deferral for cash basis taxpayers and the accounting is simply you get cash, you have income.

Does that mean small business shouldn't track their gift cards? No, they should have some way to track them because they are outstanding liabilities.

Financial reporting and accrual basis taxpayers have a different answer. The difficulty in accounting for gift cards applies to this group of business owners, which is probably a lot smaller than most people realize.