Taxation Stats show another drop in giving

On May 2, 2012 at 11:43 am by Vanessa Meachen - Permanent Link
Categories: statistics, finance, research & information, general
-

The ATO has released Taxation Statistics 2009-10. The figures show that while the number of Australians claiming a tax deduction for charitable giving increased in the 09-10 year there was a significant decrease in the amount given.

Some of the highlights include:

  • Individuals claimed tax deductible gifts totalling $1,962 million, a decrease of 6.3%
  • The number of private ancillary funds (PAFs) has increased to 955 (as of 31 October 2011)
  • Giving by PAFs has increased to a total of $197 million in 09/10, an increase of 28.8%
  • PAFs now have $2.2 billion in funds under management
  • Workplace giving stats are included for the first time and show total workplace giving for 09/10 at $23 million

The full report and the detailed tables are available to download from the ATO website.

2 Comments »

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

  1. What I find really interesting is that the reduction in large gifts that has made up more than half of the drop in total tax deductible claims by individuals. Yes, it would appear that at the aggregate level, it is the most generous givers who have eased off the most.

    The spreadsheets provided by the ATO include a breakdown of gifts claimed, by value of gift. At most levels the decrease in the aggregate value of those gifts (from the previous year) is quite small. The big drop comes at the top end: gifts of more than $25,000. While the number of those gifts actually increased on the previous year (3,687 up to 3,759) the aggregate value of those gifts decreased some $81m ($563 down to $482). These gifts account for 63% of the drop in value of claimed gifts from 2008-09 to 2009-10.

    Put another way, in 2009-10 gifts of more than $25,000 accounted for nearly a quarter of the total value of all claimed gifts. Those same gifts accounted for more than 60% of reduction in the total value of all claimed gifts over the previous year. Elasticity at the most generous end has a very big impact.

    Christopher

    Comment by Christopher Baker — May 4, 2012 #

  2. That’s a really good point, Christopher. It’s so discouraging after many years of really big increases in giving. On the other hand, giving from PAFs to other DGRs is up by $42 million - which doesn’t make up for the decrease in gifts generally, but is an excellent argument for the establishment of endowed structures during the good times which will still be giving when times are bad.

    Comment by Vanessa Meachen — May 9, 2012 #

Leave a comment

Please note that in order to prevent spam, comments on this blog are moderated, and thus may take a couple of days to be approved for posting. Please be assured that all legitimate comments will be approved for posting.

Please note that Philanthropy Australia is unable to supply advice to those seeking funding. All information we are able to provide on this topic is available on the Seeking Funding? page on our website. Any comments seeking advice for locating funding will be disregarded/not approved.

All other queries can be directed via our Contact Us page.

If you would like to comment on this blog post, please use the comment form below.

XHTML: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>


Powered by WordPress with Pool theme design by Borja Fernandez. Design modified by Philanthropy Australia.
All content © Philanthropy Australia 2007 - 2011. See Copyright & Privacy Statements.
Entries and comments feeds. Valid XHTML and CSS. ^Top^