Hi @ad.david.msb,
This situation depends less on the donation itself and more on how your role was treated when the sponsorship money was handled. Because it’s not clear which applies, there isn’t a single tax outcome we can confirm here.
If you organised the exhibition as a university employee, being required to provide your personal ABN may indicate the sponsorship payments were handled or reported incorrectly.
ABNs are used where someone is operating independently (as an independent contractor). In that scenario, amounts paid to your ABN would be treated as your income.
To help work through this, have a look at our employee or independent contractor guidance and decision tools.
You’ll likely need to clarify the basis of the arrangement with the university:
- were you acting as an employee under your usual employment conditions, or
- were you engaged separately as a contractor for the exhibition?
If the university required you to use an ABN even though you were acting as an employee, that may also raise employment or enterprise agreement considerations. Those sit outside the tax system, so you may want to discuss this with the university’s HR area or Fair Work.
5 views
0 replies