Now lawMoney & Tax Introduced in the House of Representatives, 25 Mar 2026

Gifts under $2 to charity can now be claimed on tax

This law mixes several tax changes. Gifts under $2 to charities can now be claimed at tax time. Family trusts report tax file numbers in a new way. A family trust is a way a family holds money or property. A tax file number is each taxpayer's own number. Gambling and tobacco companies can no longer claim the research tax break.

Official name: Treasury Laws Amendment (Delivering an Efficient and Trusted Tax System) Bill 2026

Who it affects

• People who give small amounts: Gifts under $2 to charities that can take tax-claimable gifts can now be claimed at tax time.
• Family trusts and the people paid from them: Tax file numbers go in the trust's yearly return. This helps the Tax Office fill in the tax returns of the people paid.
• Gambling and tobacco companies: Their research spending no longer earns the research tax break from 1 July 2025.
• Researchers working on quitting smoking or cutting gambling harm: Their work can still get the tax break if cutting harm is its only goal.
• People whose affairs are run by a Public Trustee: The Public Trustee can approve a paid person to look after their self-managed super fund.

Four tax changes in one

This law bundles several changes that are not linked into one law. It has four main parts.

The parts deal with small charity gifts and how family trusts report tax file numbers. There are a few small fixes. And there is a ban on research tax breaks for gambling and tobacco.

The Parliamentary Library works for all MPs and takes no side. It said most people backed every part except the gambling and tobacco change. It said the other parts did not cause a fight.

Gifts under $2 claimable

Some charities and groups are allowed to take gifts that donors can claim. The donor takes the gift off their income before tax is worked out. That lowers their tax. Until now, a gift had to be worth $2 or more to be claimed.

Small gifts are now common. Many shops and websites ask you to round up what you pay and give the change to charity.

This law gets rid of the $2 minimum. It covers gifts made from 1 July 2024. So people can claim small gifts made since then.

Say you round up your shopping 30 times in a year. You give about 50 cents each time. You can now claim that $15, if you keep a record.

The change does not cover gifts to political parties or people running for Parliament. Those still have the $2 minimum.

It came from a review of giving by the Productivity Commission, which gives the government advice on the economy. The government has a goal to double giving to charity by 2030.

Family trust tax file numbers

A trust is a way of holding money or things for other people. The people the trust is for are called beneficiaries. The person in charge is the trustee. Some trusts, like family trusts, are owned by a small group of people.

A tax file number is your own number with the Australian Taxation Office, which collects tax. This article calls it the Tax Office. Until now, a trustee sent a person's tax file number on a separate form. They did this after the three months in which they got it.

That made it hard for the Tax Office to match trust income to the right person. Names and addresses alone were not always enough.

This changes for trust tax years starting on or after 1 July 2026. The trustee reports each person's tax file number in the trust's yearly tax return. This covers anyone owed trust income who has given their number. A person only needs to give it once.

The Tax Office can then fill in part of the person's own tax return for them. It adds their share of trust income. The government expects this to bring in an extra $81.6 million over five years.

When a number is wrong

Sometimes a tax file number given to a trustee has been cancelled or is wrong. The Tax Office may then give the trustee the right number, if it thinks that is fair.

If the Tax Office does not give the right number, it must write to both the trustee and the person. The trustee must then hold back tax from that person's payments, as if no number had been given.

Say your aunt's family trust pays you $5,000 a year. Your tax file number on file is wrong, and the Tax Office cannot fix it. The trustee must hold back tax from your share until it is sorted.

Gambling and tobacco lose break

The Research and Development Tax Incentive gives companies a tax break for spending on new research. This law takes it away for research linked to gambling or tobacco. This applies from tax years starting on or after 1 July 2025.

Gambling here includes betting and lotteries. It includes games of chance played for money, and parts of games that work like gambling.

Tobacco includes cigarettes, cigars, tobacco plants and vapes. It includes other things that contain nicotine. Food with natural nicotine, like some vegetables, is not affected.

Research can still get the break if its only goal is cutting harm. For gambling, that means new knowledge about cutting harm from gambling. For tobacco, it means quitting nicotine fully, or medicines that cut harm.

The government gives examples. A company building better betting odds software loses the tax break. A company building face scanning to keep out gamblers who have banned themselves from venues keeps it. A company making a smoother vape loses it. A company making a product to help people quit smoking keeps it.

Industry Innovation and Science Australia is the board that signs up research claims. Approvals it gave in the past no longer protect this kind of research.

Public Trustees pick SMSF trustees

A self-managed super fund is a retirement savings fund that its own members run. Each member most often has to be a trustee, or a director of the company that acts as trustee.

A Public Trustee is a state or territory body. It can run the affairs of a person who has died or who cannot manage for themselves. This law lets a Public Trustee approve a suitable person to be trustee or director of that client's super fund. That person can be paid, but no more than a fair, normal market rate.

The law also fixes a wrong reference in a 2022 law called More Competition, Better Prices. It also tidies the law for the company and finance watchdog. The wording now clearly says the minister may tell the watchdog in writing to look into a matter.

Start date

The bill went into the House of Representatives on 25 March 2026. That is the lower house of Parliament, where the government sits. A group of senators looked at it. On 30 April 2026 they said it should pass. The House agreed to five changes from the government and passed it on 2 June 2026.

The Senate, Parliament's second house, passed it on 29 June 2026. The Governor-General, who stands in for the King, signed it into law on 30 June 2026. It became Act No. 58 of 2026.

The fixes and the research change started the next day. The $2 change and the trust change start on the first 1 January, 1 April, 1 July or 1 October after signing. The $2 change still covers gifts from 1 July 2024.

How they voted

Its journey through Parliament

Official sources

• Bill page on aph.gov.au
• Text of the bill
• Explanatory memorandum
• Bills Digest

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