Tax and volunteering: empirical evidence to support recommendations to solve the current problems surrounding the tax treatment of volunteers’ reimbursements and honoraria in New Zealand

Abstract

On I November 2007 the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Revenue

asked for submissions on ways to simply the current law on the taxation of reimbursement and honoraria paid volunteers in the non-profit sector. A number of proposals were outlined in a Inland Revenue Department issues paper released on 1 November.

This working paper presents the results of a survey of 1537 individuals and 224 organisations who replied to a web based questionnaire that was conducted in August and September 2007. The results have been used to support a number of recommendations towards simplification and clarification of current tax law.