Support With Payroll Giving

Thank you for your interest in helping your staff give back to their community by setting up payroll giving at your workplace. Payroll giving is an easy way to support children and families affected by childhood cancer in New Zealand.

Check out our video about payroll giving:

What is payroll giving?

Payroll giving is a voluntary scheme that allows employees to make regular donations to a charity of their choice directly from their pay, at no cost to your business. They choose the amount to donate, and it is taken out of their pay before it goes into their account.

If an employee donates over $5, they will receive an immediate tax credit of 33% towards their PAYE.

Your business may wish to match your employees’ contributions, helping them make even more of a difference for their chosen charity!

How payroll giving will benefit your business

There are so many ways that offering a payroll giving scheme will enhance your business. Not only will it help you meet your objectives as an employer, but it is also a great step to building a more meaningful workplace for your staff.

Here are just a few of the key benefits of payroll giving for your business:

1. Boost staff morale
Workplace giving has been proven to promote positivity among staff and reinforce a culture of teamwork, leading to increased employee engagement and productivity.

2. Demonstrate your corporate social responsibility
Many workplaces choose to match their employees’ donations, proving their commitment to supporting your community and causes their staff care about.

3. Show your support for kids with cancer and their whānau
Child Cancer Foundation doesn’t receive any direct government funding, so your workplace’s support through payroll giving will make a massive difference for families during the toughest time of their lives.

“We have found it really helps drive our engagement with the community and our people.” – Frederika Walls, Head of Corporate Affairs at Latitude Financial Services.

How to set up payroll giving

1. Find out if your workplace files your employment information electronically

As an employer, you can only offer payroll giving if you file your employment information – IR348 – electronically. If you want to set this up, you’ll need to register for myIR.

There are two options for filing employment information online: 1) an on-screen form to complete or 2) file transfer through Gateway services, where you attach a file from your own software.

If you already use payroll software it may be set up for payroll giving in your workplace. Ask your payroll software provider for help if you have any questions.

2. Decide how payroll giving will work for your workplace

You can decide how payroll giving will work in your organisation by letting employees choose any approved donee organisation, or offering a limited list of approved organisations. The employee can decide who they’d like to donate to and how much to donate, depending on how your scheme is set up.

Some businesses decide to match their employees’ donations, helping them making even more of an impact for their chosen charity.

Employees will receive an immediate tax credit for the payroll donation. This reduces their PAYE deducted from their wages. The donation and tax credits for payroll donations should show in your wage records and on your employee’s pay slips.

Your employee can donate to any organisation on IRD’s approved list of donee organisations. If they donate to other organisations, it is not considered payroll giving and they will not receive a tax credit for these donations.

If you need more information, the IRD’s payroll giving guide can be downloaded here.

3. Set up your employee’s donation

Now that you have payroll giving in place, you will need to set up your employee’s donation in your payroll system:

1. Deduct the requested donation amount from the employee’s salary or wage;
2. Work out the tax credit for each donation, (33% of the donated amount) and reduce your employee’s PAYE by this amount;
3. Record the tax credit for each employee when you submit your employer monthly schedule;
4. Pass the donation on to the donee organisation within the specified timeframe and let them know it is from payroll giving.

“It’s really straight forward and easy to start a payroll giving programme.” – Frederika Walls

If you already have payroll giving set up

Child Cancer Foundation is on the IRD’s list of approved organisations, so employees simply need to decide how much they want to donate and how often, then pass that information onto the payroll manager along with the following information:

• Organisation name: Child Cancer Foundation
• Charities Commission registration number: CC20434
• Bank account name: Child Cancer Foundation Inc
• Bank account number: 12-3191-0041879-00
• Reference / Code: Your business name
• Particulars: Payroll give
• Child Cancer Foundation contact details: 09 303 9881 / accounts@childcancer.org.nz

Timeframe for passing on donations

Donations have to be passed to the donee organisation on or before the PAYE payment due date closest to the end of the two months from the last day of the pay period when the donation was deducted. If you do not pass on the donation when you should, the donation amount becomes PAYE debt for your business.

Your responsibilities

• Keep records of all tax credits, donation amounts, donee organisations and payment dates.
• Keep any receipts you get from donee organisations. Don’t include these as donation receipts for your organisation or give them to your employees for individual tax purposes.

Thank you for taking the time to learn about payroll giving and what Child Cancer Foundation does to support Kiwi children with cancer and their whānau.

Your workplace’s support will go a long way in helping these families during the toughest time of their lives.

For more information, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our team.