A tax-deductible donation bounce has been revealed by the ATO annual statistics for the 2013–14 tax year. Total gift deductions from taxpayers rose to $2.615b, up $322m on the previous year, and now exceeding the high recorded prior to the GFC. The recovery has been slow and taken longer than other countries such as the US and UK, despite Australia being sheltered from the worst of the GFC by the mining boom and the robust nature of the Australian banking system.
The average donation was $575.54, up from $504.02 in 2012–13.
There was a 0.03% increase in the percentage of taxable donations to taxable income, the greatest increase since the GFC, which bodes well for DGRs if the trend continues.
Most income brackets were stable in their giving, compared to the previous year. However, there were increases in the over $1m taxable income bracket: the number in this bracket making deductible gifts increased from 5,440 to 6,513; and the total gifts from this tax bracket increased from $224.37m in 2012–13 to $338.54m in 2013–14. The average level of deductible giving claimed by people in this tax bracket also increased about $10,000 from the previous year, to $51,978.72. This is an encouraging sign, but there is more scope for higher giving from such a wealthy cohort.
Over 4,500 taxpayers with taxable incomes over $1m did not claim a gift. Looking more broadly to all taxpayers with taxable incomes over $500,000, almost 17,300 made no claim for tax-deductible gifts. There is considerable scope to increase charitable giving from this category of taxpayers, and boost Australia’s level of charitable giving significantly.
The total number of Private Ancillary Funds (PAFs) increased by 12.63% to 1,204 at the end of the 2013–14 income year. PAFs received $517.30m in donations and distributed $300.72m. There were 91 new Public Ancillary Funds (PubAFs) approved, to bring the total to 1,550. PubAFs received $435.05m in donations and distributed $330.36m.
Queensland, Western Australian and South Australian taxpayers decreased their levels of tax-deductible giving in 2013–14, but New South Wales and Victorian taxpayers increased their levels. The effects of the mining boom coming to an end in some states and the continuing decline of manufacturing may be partly responsible for this shift.
The 2013–14 year’s highest giving postcodes in each state were:
NSW – 2027 Point Piper, Darling Point with $35.4m
VIC – 3142 Toorak, Hawksburn with $44m
QLD – 4007 Hamilton, Ascot with $11.2m
SA – 5068 Heathpool, Kensington Park with $7.9m
WA – 6011 Cottesloe with $17m
TAS – 7250 Prospect, Norwood, Launceston with $5m
NT – 0810 Alawa, Brinkin, Casuarina with $2.8m
ACT – 2602 Ainslie, Dickson with $7.2m
A working paper analysing the full set of ATO deductible gift statistics for 2013–14 will be available shortly. A short summary of the key figures is available through QUT ePrints at http://eprints.qut.edu.au/94419
