Tax credits for donations

Thank you so much for supporting Coastguard's search and rescue volunteers

For every donation you make to Coastguard, you are able to claim 33.33% back as a tax credit. As an example, if you make a donation of $50, IRD will give you back $16.67 at the end of the tax year. Please note that you cannot claim tax credits for memberships or lottery ticket purchases (but you can claim for donations you make at the same time as those purchases).

The process for claiming tax credits is not too complicated. You can do it on the IRD website or you can fill in a form and post it back to IRD. Either way, you will need to gather some information, and on this page we’ll try to give you all the information you’ll need.

You can also donate the money you get back to Coastguard as an additional donation through TaxGift, if you would like to. There is information about this below too.

How to claim, and how to donate your tax credit to Coastguard

Option 1 - Let TaxGift take care of it for you: If you'd like to donate your tax credit to Coastguard in full then the process is very simple and you don't have to do your own claim. Just sign up with TaxGift and they will handle everything for you. There's more information here.

Option 2 - Do it yourself, on IRD's website: You can claim your own tax credits through IRD's myIR website. Their website tells you how at www.ird.govt.nz/donations, and has some good information about the claims process.

At the end of the claim you will be asked if you wish to transfer your credit, and it's here that you can enter our bank account number 12-3209-0434030-01 and our name: Royal New Zealand Coastguard Inc. If you decide to do this, please contact us to let us know, and please provide your IRD number to us so that we can identify the transaction on our bank statement.

Option 3 - Do it yourself, if you don't want to use a computer: You can also fill in IRD's form number IR526 and post it to IRD. When you receive your tax credit, you have the option of donating some or all of it to Coastguard. You can do this by bank transfer to Coastguard's bank account, number: 12-3209-0434030-01. Account name: Royal New Zealand Coastguard Inc. If you decide to do this, please contact us to let us know, so that we can identify the transaction on our bank statement. Please do contact us for other ways you can donate your tax credit.

Information you'll need

Coastguard is an approved donee organisation and our legal name is Royal New Zealand Coastguard Inc.

Our IRD number is 048-565-816.

Our Charity number is CC36138.

You'll be asked what the donation type is: religious, school, kindergarten or other. Coastguard is ‘other’.

You'll need your donation receipt(s). When you donate we will try to email this to you. If we don't have your email it'll be posted. It will show you the amount and date of your donation. Supporters who are part of Team Rescue and donate regularly will receive their annual receipt in April each year. Contact us if you are missing any receipts or need more help.