Dear Friends,

A lot of people ask us how much they can claim back from Inland Revenue for their donations to Wycliffe Bible Translators NZ (WBTNZ), and our members. I’d like to take this opportunity to explain the relationship between your gifts and Inland Revenue’s tax credits.

Wycliffe Bible Translators New Zealand is registered as a charitable entity under the Charities Act 2005 (registration number CC25000) and is on the Inland Revenue list of donee organisations. So gifts to WBTNZ which will be used by the organisation within NZ meet the criteria for a tax credit (up to the point where your total annual giving equals your taxable income). Therefore, if your donations are specified for an organisational fund, such as ‘Home Office Support’, then the whole amount is eligible for a tax credit, because this money is used within NZ.

When you send money to support our members rather than the organisation itself, the situation is different. We are simply holding your money in trust for the members until we pass it on to them. In other words, it’s not Wycliffe’s money – it’s the members’. Any donations going to individual members is not eligible for a tax credit to the donor, because it is for the members’ personal use, not our organisational use. As an organisation, we have an agreement with our members to take a small levy from this support, which enables us to provide them with needed home office services, such as the forwarding of their funds, and pastoral care. As this levy (typically 5% or 10%) is used within NZ, it is eligible for a tax rebate, as explained above.

If money is given to a project, and the project is based overseas, then the funds enter our accounts and we take a small levy for home office services (typically 5% or 10%). Only this portion is eligible for a tax rebate. If you donate towards a project that is based within NZ, such as the NZ Sign Language Bible Translation Project, then the whole amount is eligible for a tax rebate.

We want to meet our social obligations to our government and believe it is biblical to comply with tax regulations. This is why we specify on our gift receipts the exact amount of the giving that is used by WBTNZ within NZ. This should clarify for Inland Revenue, as well as for you, what meets their criteria for a tax credit.

You can find further information about tax rebates for charitable giving on the IRD website.

If you need further explanation on this, please feel free to contact us.

Thank you for partnering with us in the important work of providing God’s Word to all people in the language they know best.

Serving with you,

Bruce Eirena

Executive Director