Payroll Giving - Employers FAQ

Why have I received this Payroll Giving Request?

This Payroll Giving Request has been initiated by an employee to fund a Givealittle Plan on Givealittle.co.nz. Payroll giving is a very efficient way to make charitable donations, allowing a donor to get the benefit of a tax credit at the time of making the donation. A Givealittle Plan supports an employee to set up multiple regular donations to approved donee organisations on Givealittle using just one payroll deduction from their earnings.

Does it cost me anything to support my employees in using this service?

Givealittle does not charge employers to facilitate the transfer of an employee's deduction.

Am I obligated to support this Payroll Giving Request?

While it is a great thing for community minded employers to do, there is no legal requirement for employers to offer payroll giving to their employees or to process this Givealittle Payroll Giving Request. The IRD's payroll giving scheme is only available to employers who file their EMS (IR348) and EDF (IR345) electronically using ir-File, and Givealittle makes it easy for employers to support the initiative with only one deduction required to facilitate a wide range of donation options for employees. Further information about filing electronically via ir-File is available from Inland Revenue.

What do I need to check before I release payroll giving deductions?

As the employer you are responsible for ensuring that the correct tax is paid and that payroll giving deductions are only transferred to organisations that have been approved by Inland Revenue as having donee status. Perpetual Guardian (Givealittle) Holdings Limited is an approved donee organisation. You also need to be sure that the minimum deduction you process per employee is $5 or greater per pay period.

What steps do I need to go through to process this Payroll Giving Request?

If you chose to support this Givealittle Payroll Giving Request, as the employer you need to:

deduct the requested amount from the individual employee's salary or wage
calculate the correct tax credits for each deduction
record the tax credits against the individual employee on the EMS
keep records of all tax credits for deductions to Givealittle, amounts and payment dates
pass the deductions to Perpetual Guardian (Givealittle) Holdings Limited's nominated Givealittle trust account within the specified timeframe of the deduction being made from the employee's salary or wage

We have a self-service payroll system - what do I need to do to support payroll giving via Givealittle.co.nz?

Simply set upPerpetual Guardian (Givealittle) Holdings Limited as an approved payee in your payroll system and ensure employees can initiate at least one individual pre-tax deduction per pay period with the ability to personalise the transaction details with their name and unique payroll giving reference number (without this unique reference number Givealittle cannot apply the donations).

The Payroll Giving Request specifies a deduction frequency that is different from the employees pay frequency. What do I do?

Contact the employee and advise that they need to update their Givealittle Plan and Payroll Giving Request to match their pay frequency.

What if the employee has insufficient earnings to process the payroll giving deduction?

You have two options:

You can notify the employee that their Payroll Giving Request cannot be processed this payroll period due to insufficient pre-tax earnings. Givealittle will not process the employee's Givealittle Plan for that pay period.
You can partially fund the Payroll Giving Request with available earnings and Givealittle will process the individual donations in the employee's Givealittle Plan as per available funds.

What if the employee leaves our organisation?

If an employee leaves your organisation, please cancel this request with final pay for the employee. The employee will be notified by Givealittle to update their Payroll Giving Request at the next Plan cycle.

What if the employee requests a receipt from me?

Please ensure the deduction is clearly outlined on their payslip and refer the employee to payrollgiving@givealittle.co.nz for all matters concerning receipts. Givealittle uses a special document format to acknowledge deductions and donations from payroll giving so that employee cannot claim twice on the donation tax credit with IRD. (As the tax credit is automatically applied in the pay period, no receipts are required to be submitted to IRD. The deduction and associated tax credit will be shown on the pay slip for an employee to review. A key benefit of payroll giving in that no action is required by the employee to claim the tax credit.)

We have multiple employees using Givealittle for payroll giving. Can we just make one payment for all employee deductions?

No. Each employee's deduction must be received as one single transaction in the Givealittle trust account with the unique transaction reference information as stated on their Payroll Giving Request form.