Cultural Gifts Program | Office for the Arts

The Cultural Gifts Program offers tax incentives to encourage people to donate cultural items to public art galleries, museums, libraries and archives in Australia.

Who can apply

If you have an item recognised as important to Australia’s culture you can donate it and receive a tax deduction. Donations include paintings, books, sculptures, installations, new media, manuscripts, personal papers, jewellery, ceramics, technological or scientific collections.

When to apply

You can apply to have your donation recognised under Australian tax law at any time. The tax deduction/s will be for the market value of the donation. Property donated is exempt from capital gains tax and the tax deduction may be spread over a period of up to five years.

Contact us

Phone: 02 6271 7106 Email: cgp.mail@arts.gov.au Address: Cultural Gifts Program, Office for the Arts, Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts GPO Box 2154 Canberra ACT 2601.

About the program

The Cultural Gifts Program offers tax incentives to encourage people to donate cultural items to Australian public collecting institutions.

Donated items can include visual and decorative arts, Indigenous arts and cultural artefacts, social history and scientific collections, and archival material.

We manage the program under provisions in Australia's income tax law and with advice from technical experts.

Under the program you could get the following tax incentives for your donation:

The GST inclusive market value of the donation is fully tax deductible, with some exceptions.
You can choose to spread the deduction across up to five income years.
Donations are exempt from capital gains tax.
If you arrange for valuations for your donation, the cost of those valuations is tax deductible.

Please note: Donations made under a will or made by executors of deceased estates are not tax deductible and do not qualify for the program.

Each donation involves: