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

For some time now, there have been simplifications for donors when it comes to the tax-deductibility of donations to eligible recipient organizations (e.g., museums, public kindergartens and schools, voluntary fire departments, charitable and humanitarian organizations, animal welfare associations, etc.). Instead of the individual donor declaring the donations as part of the employee tax deduction or tax return, the donor-beneficiary organization (with a permanent local establishment in Germany) submits the relevant information directly to the tax office under certain conditions, so that the tax deduction is automatically taken into account. The 2023 Non-Profit Organization Reform Act has also expanded the eligibility of donations to areas such as education or sports. Finally, there has also been a simplification of the procedure for the tax-deductibility of donations, e.g., for education or sports.

The charitable organizations must report the total amount of donations made by the respective person in 2024 to the tax authorities by the end of February 2025 (via FinanzOnline, using the encrypted sector-specific personal identification number for taxes and duties). The submissions received by the donation recipients at the tax authorities can be tracked in detail by the donor in FinanzOnline (comparable submitted payslip).

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

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