The gift that keeps giving

Those retirees who have not gifted this pension year should consider giving a hand out quickly if they want to benefit before changes in social security gifting rules, announced in the budget, come into ef-fect.

From July 1, 1999, the amount they can give each year without at-tracting the deprivation provisions falls from $10,000 to $5,000.

In addition, the concept of pension year - which is the anniversary of each pensioner's grant of payment - will be abolished and will be replaced with the

Those retirees who have not gifted this pension year should consider giving a hand out quickly if they want to benefit before changes in social security gifting rules, announced in the budget, come into ef-fect.

From July 1, 1999, the amount they can give each year without at-tracting the deprivation provisions falls from $10,000 to $5,000.

In addition, the concept of pension year - which is the anniversary of each pensioner's grant of payment - will be abolished and will be replaced with the more commonly understood financial year.

The changes are viewed as a move to prevent pensioners from divesting themselves of their assets ahead of the asset test which is done to assess the level of aged pension.

Westpac Financial Services technical services manager Nick Ingram says there is a gap for those who have the end of their pension year coming up soon. They could gift $10,000 now. They could then give an-other $10,000 before July 1 and a further $5,000 in the next tax year.

"That means they will be able to give away $25,000 in a short space of time," he says.

The changes in the gifting rules, however, are not expected to have a large impact on charities.

Givewell principal Michael Walsh says people on pensions are more in-clined to gift to family members and they do not tend to give large amounts to charity. Gifting for them is often an estate planning pro-cesses, he says.

Ends