Donations and fundraising to help people affected by natural disaster

Organising a fundraising appeal or event

In response to a disaster, you may want to run a fundraising event or appeal by:

• collecting money
• donating a portion of your sales
• crowdfunding.

You may arrange for an established deductible gift recipient (DGR) to collect the donations. A DGR will already have the required infrastructure in place to collect gifts that are tax deductible and issue receipts to donors.

You need to be aware of the tax and reporting requirements, in particular goods and services tax (GST), for you, your business or organisation. See Collecting to help people affected by disaster for more information.

Setting up a tax-deductible appeal

If you, your business or organisation want to establish a tax-deductible appeal fund, you need to consider whether you, your business or organisation (or the fund) can be endorsed by us as a DGR business collecting donations.

If you are a not-for-profit but not a DGR, find out about collecting to help people affected by disaster.

You should also be aware of your tax situation and whether you need to:

• pay tax on the proceeds you receive from the event – see Income and deductions for business
• apply GST to your taxable sales – see GST and fundraising
• consider if there are fringe benefits or exempt fringe benefits for the emergency assistance.

Phone us on 1300 130 248 to ask about fundraising events and setting up an appeal fund.

Crowdfunding

You can use crowdfunding platforms to seek funds for businesses and individuals impacted by natural disasters.

If you're involved in crowdfunding, whether a promoter, intermediary or contributor, you need to be aware of your tax and reporting requirements. The promoter and intermediary may need to be registered for GST and pay GST on crowdfunding income.

Most crowdfunding donations are not tax deductible because they're not made to a DGR.