Claiming your donations, childcare or housekeeper tax credit (formerly rebate)
When to use
If you're claiming a donation, childcare or housekeeper tax credit, find out first if you can claim these tax credits.
You can claim a tax credit for the previous tax year (1 April to 31 March) from the following April. We'll only accept an early tax credit claim form (prior to April) if you're:
- completing the claim on behalf of a deceased person, or
- going overseas permanently or for a significant amount of time.
Note
If your donations were made to an approved donee organisation through your employer's payroll giving scheme you can't use the IR526 for these donations. You received the tax credits for these at the time of your donation.
You can use the IR526 to claim tax credits for donations not made through payroll giving.
What you need
- Your IRD number
- Your bank account number
- Receipts for donations, childcare or housekeeper payments. Find out about replacement receipts.
How to claim a tax credit
| Tell me how... | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Get a tax credit claim form |
If you claimed one of these tax credits (formerly rebates) last year:
|
| 2 | Complete the form |
Fill in only the questions on the form that apply to you. You don't have to do any calculations. We'll do them for you. |
| 3 | Send the form to us at one of the addresses below |
Remember to attach all your receipts for donations, childcare and housekeeper payments.
|
IRD postal addresses
| If you are closest to ... | then send the form to Inland Revenue at ... |
|---|---|
| Takapuna or Manukau | PO Box 1454, Waikato Mail Centre, Hamilton 3240 |
| Hamilton, Tauranga, Rotorua, Gisborne, New Plymouth, Napier, Palmerston North or Wellington | PO Box 39090, Wellington Mail Centre, Lower Hutt 5045 |
| Whangarei, Nelson, Greymouth, Christchurch, Timaru, Dunedin or Invercargill | PO Box 3752, Christchurch Mail Centre, Christchurch 8140 |
What happens next?
We'll send you notification of your refund amount within six weeks which will be direct credited to the bank account you nominated on your form, unless you:
- have a debt with us, or
- ask for it to be transferred to another account.
Note: If you send in your form and later want to make another tax credit (formerly rebate) claim for the same tax year, just send us your receipts with your name, address and IRD number and we'll update your claim.
Find out more
- Donations, childcare and housekeeper tax credits
- Donee organisations
- Tax credits
- Payroll giving for individuals
Date published: 06 Oct 2009
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