CBM

Giving makes good business sense

New Zealanders are naturally generous people. Each year an estimated 1.2 million of us volunteer our time and together we give more than $1 billion a year.

Recent changes to our tax rules have made it even easier for businesses and employees to give. These are:

• The introduction of payroll giving through the PAYE scheme -employees can give as they earn and receive an immediate tax credit of one third of each donation;

• Removal of caps on the donations tax credit - individuals and companies (including close companies) can now donate up to the level of their net income and still receive a tax benefit;

• Clarification of the tax treatment of reimbursement payments and honoraria to volunteers - i.e. reimbursements are not taxed while honoraria is taxable income.

New Zealand businesses have an opportunity to use these changes to their increase their community investment.

International research is categorical. Giving back to community is not only the right thing to do but it is also clever business. Communities are customers and prospective customers, and employees and prospective employees.

Payroll giving is the most recent change and became available in New Zealand in January. It is voluntary for both employers and employees.

Surveys in countries with established schemes shows that payroll giving provides significant benefits to employers including:
• Increased employee morale and retention;
• An improved social responsibility profile with associated cost effective marketing benefits;
• Stronger partnerships with the community.

How do businesses become involved in payroll giving?

1. Visit the website www.payrollgivinginfo.org.nz for details on payroll giving administrative providers;
2. Ask employees if they want to be involved; before choosing an organisation, donors need to check that it has Inland Revenue-approved donee status by visiting www.ird.govt.nz/donee-organisations;
3. Put guidelines together to manage employees' expectations around how often they can change their chosen charity or donation amount.

Click here to be taken to the CBM home page

The presentations as presented to our recent CEO breakfast are below.

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Files to download

Ongoing Partnership
NHBA CEOs Breakfast cbm-NZ Presentation
The Challenge

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