2021 ATO charitable giving tax stats for individuals - giving of $25K+ now accounts for 54% of deductions claimed!

It is time for a deep dive into the latest ATO charitable giving tax statistics from the tax year 2020 – 2021! Over the next few weeks, we will look different segments of data within the ATO’s tax tables to see what the it can tell us about Australian giving.

Today, we will look at the big numbers for individual giving:
- Total deductions for charitable giving in 2020 – 2021 was $4,391,841,375 – which is an increase from 2019 – 2020 of over $545m. 
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- In continuing with the growth trend that we have noted for the past 10 years or so, 54% of that $4.3bn total was claimed by those giving $25K+, so more than half of all giving is claimed by those whom we broadly would consider major donors. Back in 2011 – 2012, only 28% of giving came from those claiming $25K+ in charitable deductions so it is fantastic to see sustained growth of major giving over the past decade. 

- Moreover, 54% percent of all giving ($2.3bn) is claimed by a tiny number of donors – 8,442 or .2% of all people claiming charitable donations. The number of donors giving at this level has steadily increased over the past 9 years, from 4,515 in 2012, while the overall percentage of donors giving at this level grew from .1% to .2%. 

However, in 2021, there were 18,668 individuals with taxable income of $1m+, and a further 47,646 individuals with taxable income of $500K - $1m – so there is certainly room for significant growth in the number of people claiming charitable deductions at a major gift level.

- In addition, the average gift made by individuals claiming $25K+ has nearly doubled since 2012. Back in 2012, the average deduction claimed by this group was $142K and by 2021 the average deduction has climbed to $281K. Given the rise in wealth over the past decade this isn’t particularly surprising.

Note: Individual giving tax deduction stats capture giving into PAFs and PuAFs, but not distributions from PAFs and PuAFs - that data is published separately!

Is there a particular segment of the latest data you want to hear more about? Let us know!

Upcoming posts – what can people give vs what do people give and the growth of middle donors