A parent has complained to the Ombudsman because a school failed to treat charges totalling nearly $2000 as voluntary donations and now cannot provide official donation receipts.
By John Gerritsen for RNZ
Rachel Bakker said she only realised when her children started a new school last year that many of the payments Loburn School in Canterbury had asked her family to pay were voluntary rather than compulsory fees or charges.
She said she was now trying to get tax credits for three years of payments covering activities including camps, performances and field trips, but the school had been unable to provide donation receipts in a form accepted by IRD.
Bakker told RNZ she had complained to the Office of the Ombudsman.
Loburn School principal Stuart Priddy admitted the school was not clear about the payments but said it had since changed its approach.
Priddy told RNZ the school failed to specify some payments were voluntary, but mentioned it "in a general sense in newsletters".
"From our point of view our camp fees have always been voluntary however probably what we haven't done as much as what we could have done is specifically mention that to parents," he said.
"I've checked... on our camp statements and it never said compulsory but it never said voluntary either."
RNZ asked Priddy to provide evidence that newsletters mentioned voluntary payments and he responded that the school had always made it clear that financial hardship would not prevent participation.
Priddy said the school never stopped a child attending camp or other activities because a family did not pay, nor had it chased families for payment.
Asked if the school should have explicitly said if charges were voluntary, Priddy said he agreed.
He said the school changed its approach at the start of 2026 and now made it clear which charges were voluntary and which were not.
Priddy said the school provided Bakker with official donation receipts.
But Bakker told RNZ the receipts did not comply with IRD requirements.
She said the school also provided a list of payments that showed it charged GST on most of the items that it now agreed should have been treated as donations and should therefore have been exempt from GST.
Bakker said the payments included charges for swimming, visiting performers, and class trips, as well as for curriculum resources and school camps.
"The only item ever labelled as a donation was the annual family donation," she said.
Bakker said her family would not have paid some of the bills if it had realised they were not compulsory.
Financial statements seen by RNZ show the school included GST in costs it later told the Bakkers were voluntary, indicating the school had not treated the payments as donations at the time.
Priddy said that was because while the ministry classed the payments as voluntary, IRD did not.
IRD told RNZ that it did not require GST for curriculum-related activities, but it was applied to other, optional activities.
"For state and state-integrated schools, where a camp or field trip forms an integral and compulsory part of curriculum delivery, and parents are asked to contribute towards food or travel, the contribution is treated as a donation and GST is not charged," it said.
"Where an activity is voluntary or extra-curricular and participation depends on payment, the payment is generally subject to GST."
The School Boards Association told RNZ what was voluntary and what was not was a source of confusion.
The Education Ministry said it had a School Financial Advice team that worked directly with schools if it received complaints.
"We are following up with the school in this case," it said.
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