TrustPower Community Connect

Where are they now?

Training & Support

02/02/2010	PAYROLL GIVING SCHEMES NOW UNDERWAY IN NZ WORKPLACES
During January, the print and electronic media highlighted the introduction of New Zealand's new payroll giving scheme. Stories featured workplaces such as 2Degrees, payroll companies such as IMS, and some of the groups set to benefit from payroll giving; including the Hearing House, Plunket and World Vision. We also featured an article about Payroll Giving on Community Connect's December/January Training and Support page...go to the Training and Support page to see the article in full.
Employees benefit from payroll giving when their donations go directly from their pay to a chosen community organisation. Because payroll giving is administered through the PAYE tax system, employees receive immediate tax benefits from their donations each payday, without having to present donation receipts or wait to claim at the end of a tax year. Research on giving indicates that approximately 794,000 people in employment are already committed givers (ie: making regular contributions of time or money to causes that are important to them). By switching to payroll giving, many of these workers could potentially get back money they might not have bothered to claim from Inland Revenue in the past - effectively making donations more affordable, which may encourage some people to increase the amounts they give. How workplaces choose to set up payroll giving is very flexible - it is entirely voluntary for both employers and staff - and employers can limit the scheme to a few community organisations if they choose to. Some workplaces plan to start with a short list of groups to support, so they can keep things simple for the initial introduction of payroll giving. The OCVS has heard of workplaces where staff have voted for which groups to support, and other situations where donors (who are employers) have decided to offer their staff the opportunity to give to that chosen group. Other workplaces will be introducing payroll software that makes it easy for staff to change their own payroll donations - giving them the opportunity to donate to any one of the 18,000 plus donee organisations registered with Inland Revenue. In November 2009, every employer received a letter and brochure explaining the basics about payroll giving. Employers with five or more staff also received a CD-Rom featuring the Payroll Giving Guide (IR617) from Inland Revenue and a selection of promotional posters. All this material is available on the Inland Revenue website and from the Office for the Community and Voluntary Sector website. Taken from the Office for the Community & Voluntary Sector newsletter. Click here to view the OCVS website.