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What tax requirements need to be considered when fundraising?

Requirements for your organization:

  • You must always provide betterplace.org with the current notice of exemption, the current annex to the corporate income tax notice confirming the non-profit status or the current notice of assessment according to § 60a AO as proof of your organization’s tax exemption.
  • You may only present betterplace.org with an assessment notice according to § 60a paragraph 1 AO as proof of tax relief if your organization has not yet received either an annex to the corporate income tax notice or an exemption notice.
  • You must inform betterplace.org immediately and without being asked of any change in the tax relief status of your organization (e.g. withdrawal of non-profit status).

Requirement for your organization’s project: 

In carrying out your project, your important work should be at the forefront of your mind. Nonetheless, you will need to consider a number of tax and nonprofit legal requirements when fundraising and implementing your project to avoid liability risks for your organization and the risk of losing its nonprofit status. Therefore, it is best to clarify the most important points in advance within your organization. We are happy to help you with some hints, but we can in no way replace legal advice. To be really sure, it is best to talk to your tax advisor.

!ATTENTION!: Please pay particular attention to the following nonprofit legal requirements when carrying out the project (list is not exhaustive):

  • You may only ever use the donations for tax-privileged purposes (§§ 51 ff. of the German Tax Code (AO)).
  • You may not donate the donations received from betterplace to a foreign organization (here we are stricter than the law), see: 
  • Your project purpose according to your project description on your project page on betterplace.org must always be in line with the statutory purpose of your organization.
  • Your project must not exceed the limits of permissible political activity.- The use of funds for administrative costs is only permitted if they are reasonable.- You must ensure a timely use of funds.- You may not offer or promise any consideration for donations (neither through your organization nor through third parties). XX Vorsicht, link ist auf Deutsch XX
  • If your project also generates income (for example, you collect donations for the organization of an event that costs admission), there are a few things to consider: In this case, you must ensure that it is a permissible special-purpose operation according to the German Fiscal Code (AO) and that the permissible scope is not exceeded. This is because collecting donations for commercial business operations is not permissible.
  • If you are re-donating the funds to another domestic XX charitable XX organization, here’s what to consider: You are responsible for ensuring that the final recipient of the donations also meets all tax and non-profit requirements. You may also have to prove this to betterplace.org.
  • If your organization implements projects abroad, special guidelines must be followed, see the two help articles:
  • Contributions for an association membership cannot be collected via betterplace.org. Membership contributions are not donations and are treated separately for tax purposes. Therefore, they must always be made directly to the organization.
  • Sub-foundations (donations to the assets of a foundation to be preserved, so-called asset stock donations) cannot be collected via betterplace.org. This is because an increased donation deduction applies to endowments. Donation confirmations that entitle to an increased donation deduction can only be issued by foundations. We are not a foundation and can therefore only issue a donation receipt for a “simple” donation and are not authorized to issue donation receipts for “asset fund donations”.

The organization’s duty to inform betterplace.org: 

If your organization discovers that its project no longer meets the tax and non-profit requirements, it must inform betterplace.org of this fact without being asked and without delay at support@betterplace.org. In addition, the project must be cancelled and communicated accordingly on the platform.

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