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Do you have volunteers or employees?

It's important to work out whether a person is a volunteer or an employee. This may affect the tax on transactions.

Last updated 3 September 2020

Do you have volunteers or employees working for your not-for-profit organisation? It’s important to work out whether the person is a volunteer or an employee as this may affect the tax treatment of transactions between the person and your organisation.

In most cases:

  • volunteers do not have to pay any tax on payments or benefits they get as a volunteer
  • NFP organisations do not have to withholding PAYG amounts or pay fringe benefits tax on payments they make to volunteers.

If you need help, phone the Not-for-profit infoline on 1300 130 248.

If you have employees, you must pay superannuation (super) contributions for eligible employees. This is known as super guarantee. Find out what you have to do in Super for employers.

See also:

Not-for-profit volunteers

QC39619