Earlier this month we received some very good news. GC Aid has been granted ‘Schedule 32’ Donee Status!
Generally, donations to charities and churches in New Zealand qualify for a one-third tax credit when a gift is spent within the country. Each of our GC3 trusts has that general Donee Status. It means that when an individual gives $300 to us for our activities within NZ, we can issue a donation receipt that can be used to claim $100 back in their IR526 Tax Credit Claim form.
However, gifts given to a mission partner, or to the ministry they are involved in, do not qualify for the tax credit. This is because the gift has been given to them or their ministry, and not to us at GC3 for our use and purposes. The gift has been merely held in trust by us for the mission partner, to be passed on to them for use in some place outside of New Zealand. These gifts therefore have not qualified for a tax credit in the past, and still do not.
For some time now, there has been a special group of charities who have been granted a special Donee Status which enables them to issue donation receipts for all the gifts they receive, even though the funds are applied off-shore. TEAR Fund and World Vision are two examples of organisations that have enjoyed this special status for some time. Naturally, there are specific and tight rules applying to this status.
Now our GC Aid has been added to that list of organisations!
So what does this new status mean in general?
Gifts to GC Aid for the following activities in ‘Developing Countries’ will qualify for a tax credit receipt
o Relief of suffering
o Health services
o Educational services
o Economic aid
o Micro business enterprise development
• Gifts must be directed to an established institution involved in these activities to qualify.
• Gifts for disaster relief anywhere in the world will qualify for a tax credit receipt provided they are placed at the discretion of GC Aid.
• Gifts for the general support of mission partners (individuals and non-approved institutions) will not qualify for a tax credit receipt.
• Gifts through GCiM will not qualify for the tax credit. The special status has been granted to GC Aid only.
We are currently working with our mission partners to determine which of their ministry activities will qualify.
We plan to publish a complete list of those institutions and activities in due course (1). If you have a question as to whether an organisation might qualify or not, please contact me before sending your gift in to us.
Our desire is to honour the status conferred on us, while aiming to enable tax efficient giving as widely as possible.
If you were to provide a gift to GC Aid for an institution fitting the criteria, the net ‘cost’ to you is two-thirds what it would otherwise have been. That’s because we will issue you with a receipt that will qualify for inclusion in your IR528 Tax Credit Claim Form, enabling you to obtain 33.3% of the gift value back by way of tax credit.
Use these bank accounts for your gifts
GC Aid 06 0729 0522196 00 for disaster relief and listed institutional ministries
GCiM 06 0729 0336879 00 for all mission partner support including their general ministry costs
Sefton Marshall
Operations Director
May 2017
(1) Those institutions that clearly qualify are -
• Christian Missions Charitable Trust, Chennai, India
• Katoka Hospital, Katoka, DRC
• Rehoboth Girls’ Orphanage, Thrissur, India
• The Limapella Foundation, Kitwe, Zambia
• Kalene Mission Hospital
• Harland Deaf Ministry Trust