This is for the people versed in international and tax law.
By a ruling of the ECJ all tax-payers in the EU can deduct charitable donations to any organisation within the EU from their taxes. In Germany at least this means that the charitability has to be certified by the German authorities. The usual process here is that a legal entity wishing to accept tax-deductible donations has to document how their funds are used and can then issue certificates to donors which then document the tax-deductibility of their donations.
Which leads to a couple of ideas and questions:
It is obvious then that to receive tax-deductible donations in principle necessitates exactly one legal seat in any of the EU member states. This opens up donations from potentially 500 million people in the largest economic zone of the world. Does charitability have to be proven in every one of the currently 28 member states or is there an easier way to do this, e.g. by some sort of transitivity? Is it possible to get the usual certification at all or does charitability have to be proven for each and every one of the donations?
Is this process specific to Germany or do other EU member states recognise charitable organisations from other member states by default such as Ireland and United Kingdom? How do medium sized organisations solve the problem of receiving tax-deductible donations, do they just found a bunch of subsidaries?
Assuming that the situation is maximally bleak with regard of tax deductibility, would it be useful to lobby for reform at the level of the EU to make it way easier to donate from any member state to any legal entity in any other member? Or is the marginal unit of money better spent elsewhere?
Considering the tax-load in the EU and the potential wealth available for donations a lot of thought should be given to these kind of things.
I have a couple more thoughts on the whole matter of extracting more donations, if anyone is interested.
This is for the people versed in international and tax law.
By a ruling of the ECJ all tax-payers in the EU can deduct charitable donations to any organisation within the EU from their taxes. In Germany at least this means that the charitability has to be certified by the German authorities. The usual process here is that a legal entity wishing to accept tax-deductible donations has to document how their funds are used and can then issue certificates to donors which then document the tax-deductibility of their donations.
Which leads to a couple of ideas and questions:
It is obvious then that to receive tax-deductible donations in principle necessitates exactly one legal seat in any of the EU member states. This opens up donations from potentially 500 million people in the largest economic zone of the world. Does charitability have to be proven in every one of the currently 28 member states or is there an easier way to do this, e.g. by some sort of transitivity? Is it possible to get the usual certification at all or does charitability have to be proven for each and every one of the donations?
Is this process specific to Germany or do other EU member states recognise charitable organisations from other member states by default such as Ireland and United Kingdom? How do medium sized organisations solve the problem of receiving tax-deductible donations, do they just found a bunch of subsidaries?
Assuming that the situation is maximally bleak with regard of tax deductibility, would it be useful to lobby for reform at the level of the EU to make it way easier to donate from any member state to any legal entity in any other member? Or is the marginal unit of money better spent elsewhere?
Considering the tax-load in the EU and the potential wealth available for donations a lot of thought should be given to these kind of things.
I have a couple more thoughts on the whole matter of extracting more donations, if anyone is interested.