KEY POINTS:
John Titchener once volunteered for a wide range of organisations.
The energetic recent retiree was involved with Rotary, the Alternatives to Violence Project, the Community Organisations Grants Scheme, and his church among others. But he has now stepped down from virtually all his charitable work because of what he sees as discrimination against volunteers by the tax department.
As part of his role with COGS - the Internal Affairs-administered system whereby volunteers allocate government grants to community groups - he was required to attend a two-day meeting in Rotorua last year.
It was a 244km round trip for Titchener. To his surprise, when he went to claim his travel expenses he was also handed an IR330 tax form.
"That was the first we were told we were required to fill in a tax form," he says. "I was told if I didn't fill it in, my reimbursements would be taxed at 44c in the dollar instead of 33c."
He refused, on the grounds that the reimbursements weren't income and therefore shouldn't attract tax. "I do have a commerce degree and I do understand what is income and what isn't income."
He says after discussions with Internal Affairs, COGS and the IRD, he realised he wasn't getting anywhere and resigned from his volunteer posts.
Titchener says all he asks is that volunteers be treated exactly the same as employees, who are not taxed on reimbursements for expenses incurred on the job.
He points out that it is illegal to discriminate against someone on the grounds of race, gender, religion or marital status. "And yet the IRD are able to discriminate against a large number of people solely on the basis of employment status."
