Charitable organisations must report the donations they have received by the end of February.

Through the Non-Profit Organization Reform Act 2023, the taxability of donations has been extended (e.g., to the areas of education or sports), and the procedure for tax benefits for donations has been simplified (see KI 08/23). Long ago, simplification measures were introduced for donors when donating to eligible recipient organizations (e.g., museums, public kindergartens and schools, voluntary fire departments, charitable and humanitarian organizations, animal welfare associations, etc.). Instead of claiming the tax benefits within the context of the individual donor’s personal tax return, the tax-benefiting organization (with a fixed local establishment in Germany) submits the relevant information directly to the tax office under certain conditions, so that tax consideration takes place automatically.

The charitable organizations must report the total amount of donations made by the respective person in 2023 to the tax office by the end of February 2024 (via FinanzOnline, using the encrypted sector-specific personal identification number for taxes and duties). The submissions submitted by the recipients of donations to the tax office can be tracked in detail by the donor in FinanzOnline (comparable submitted payslip).

By the way, donations cannot generally be considered a special issue if the donor’s first and last name as well as the donor’s date of birth are not known to the recipient, or the data transmission to the tax authorities has been explicitly prohibited. In exceptional cases, such as errors in the transmission process, donations that are credibly made can be taken into account for tax purposes through the filing of a tax return.

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