Parents miss out on millions in school donation rebates

Thousands of Kiwi families don’t realise donations for their kids’ education could land them a cash windfall, writes Kirsty Lawrence.

Millions of dollars in tax rebates on school donations could be going unclaimed each year.

Many parents are unaware they can claim a rebate from the Inland Revenue Department of up to one third of what they donated to the school their children attended.

And schools often don’t tell parents the rebate is available. Many parents still think they’re paying a fee, rather than a donation.

The number of parents claiming back money from their school donations has dropped. Latest Inland Revenue figures show that 6000 fewer claims were lodged between 2013 and 2015.

In 2015, parents claimed back $21.2 million.

Tax expert Michael Gousmett said a comparison of Inland Revenue and Ministry of Education data showed $46m of donation rebates had not been claimed.

IRD said any donation returns that were unclaimed went back into Government coffers to fund public services such as roads, schools and hospitals.

The Ministry of Education said in 2015 that parents who filed financial statements paid $126m in donations, up from $113m the previous year.

Because people are entitled to claim back up to four years’ of school donations, one Auckland accountant has set out to show parents they’re missing out.

Luke Kemeys quit his job as a chartered accountant in 2016 and launched the website Schoolrebates.co.nz in January.

It helps parents claim back the 33 per cent of their school donation they are entitled to.

Kemeys, saw a gap in the market when he read an article stating about 60 per cent of parents were not lodging a claim.

‘‘The feedback is ‘it’s too hard’ and ‘they didn’t know how to do it’,’’ Kemeys said.

To make a claim, parents had to apply on paper through Inland Revenue and had to get a receipt from the school.

But through the new website the process now takes less than five minutes.

Kemeys said the money parents were getting back was being put to good use.

‘‘The amount one parent was going to get back was enough to pay for this year’s school uniform they were about to pay for.’’

Christchurch mother Tracey Wethey used the website and was able to claim back rebates on three years of school donations.

She learned about schoolrebates.co.nz when The Block reality TV show winners Sam Cable and Emmett Vallender shared it on their Facebook page. ‘‘They said it was one of their friends that had set it up, so I went in and had a look and thought ‘oh I didn’t even know you could get school rebates back’,’’ she said.

At first Wethey was nervous about entering her account details, but decided to give it a go and is happy with the result.

‘‘It was really easy and it was really quick.’’

Wethey said she realised afterwards that she could have lodged a claim herself through the Inland Revenue website but ‘‘that sounds a bit hard – this is easy’’.

Kemeys said people’s nervousness about using the Inland Revenue website was the reason he and his business partner, Phillip Smith, had started the venture.

‘‘We want to be helping more people.’’

The company charges 15 per cent of a total rebate.

Long-term, they had big plans to recycle business profits back into education, such as by donating raincoats to lower-decile schools, providing lunches and sponsoring children to go to university, Kemeys said.

He was also an option for their rebates fund.

‘‘That’s The amount one parent was going to get back was enough to pay for this year’s school uniform. the hoping to develop parents to donate straight into this bigger vision.’’