The issue was first raised by Inland Revenue (IRD) in 2014 when they sent out an alert warning taxpayers that the practice of claiming private school fees as donations to collect tax rebates was unlawful.
Both IRD and Minister of Revenue, Michael Woodhouse, confirmed "a number of investigations" have been conducted.
[...]
But IRD wouldn't detail how widespread the issue was or how much money had been illegally collected in tax rebates by parents, saying it would compromise their investigations.
This appears to be enabled by the schools themselves, which set large fees, but then charge high "voluntary donations" as a substitute. Of course, the "donations" aren't really "voluntary", but just a fee by another name - but calling it that allows the parents to falsely claim a tax deduction and steal from the public. Just another example of how the rich rip us off. Its simply criminal, and both the tax cheats and their enabling school management should be prosecuted for it.
Meanwhile, I'm wondering whether any of ACT's charter schools are running this scam...