Gift cards, gift certificates
If you are using a gift card system that is built into your POS then the customer will not earn points when purchasing the gift card. Points will be earned when they use it since it will be seen as any other form of payment.
If you are selling physical giftcard or gift certificates which have a SKU, make sure they are in their own product category. You will then be able to exclude them by creating a 0x earning rule.