Donations

A donation can be money, or the equivalent of money, or goods or services that is given to you or someone on your behalf to use in your campaign.

It can be a cash donation or someone might give you free things or pay for something you get for free to use in your campaign.

Find out more about candidate donations in the Candidate Handbook.

The following don’t count as donations:

• free labour
• goods or services you get for free from a New Zealand person that have a reasonable market value of $300 or less
• goods or services you get for free from an overseas person that have a reasonable market value of $50 or less
• money you give to your own campaign.

You have to report all donations, and contributions to donations, of more than $1,500 (including GST) to us after the election in your return of expenses, donations and loans.

You must also report a series of donations one person makes if they add up to more than $1,500.

A donation is anonymous if there’s no way you could know who sent it.

Candidates aren't allowed to accept anonymous donations of more than $1,500.

If you get an anonymous donation that’s more than $1,500, you can only keep $1,500 of it. You have to send the balance to the Electoral Commission within 20 working days of receiving the donation.

Find out more in the Candidate Handbook.

Candidates are not allowed to accept donations or contributions over $50 from an overseas person.

An overseas donor or contributor is any of the following:

• a person who lives outside New Zealand and isn’t a New Zealand citizen or on the electoral roll
• a body corporate that’s incorporated outside New Zealand
• an unincorporated body that has its head office or main place of business outside New Zealand.

Find out more about what you need to do if you receive a donation over $50 from an overseas person in the Candidate Handbook.