This is getting eerily like the argument about those charities who use their tax free status to advocate their political causes instead of looking after the welfare of their members.

Parliament should really look at what the Greens are doing, and like removing tax exemption from Greenpeace etc, reduce Green Parliamentary funding.

JC

Either way, my main concern is that the law is inconsistent and murky enough to have the flexibility of applying it to some organizations and yet ignore others.  This sets groups up to be discriminated by the government for political purposes.  I’d like a review to check that these determinations are even-handed.  It would also be worth a discussion on what is charitable, because I think Family First (and Greenpeace) may qualify given it has a broad range of worthy concerns.

Perhaps the key to this is also the donation model.

I don’t view the donation rebate as being tax payer funded.  If I earn $100, the government takes 33 cents.  If I choose to donate that $100, the government gives me back the 33 cents it took from me.  However, I no longer have the $100 because I donated it for a charitable purpose.  What I have done, essentially, is pay a voluntary tax to help the community or the NZ society.  A donation is a kind of targeted tax, and it is not in the government’s interest to tax that tax, especially if one believes charities can provide a better quality of service at a better rate than the government.  So no tax money has been lost or funded by other tax payers.

Equally, charities therefore need to operate as charities and not spend most of their donations funding some persons life stye (although income paid should be taxable under normal PAYE rules).  There is a case for the government to regulate charities to the extent that they can be proven to serve a charitable purpose.  Maybe Greenpeace and Family First don’t qualify, and maybe they do.  It’s worth considering.  However, while the government says they don’t, I’d like to know the decision isn’t variable and political.