As the fantasy name «non-profit package» already expresses, it is a kind of subject reform that is designed for broad application. In this way, it enables various corporate bodies, be they stock corporations, family businesses, private foundations, charitable trusts, associations or private individuals to shape their charitable commitment in a variety of ways. The Solutio Foundation partners took a close look at the package and asked themselves the following question: Who may donate to whom and how much?
Up to now, the Federal Fiscal Code (see § 34 para. 1 BAO) has regulated that tax benefits are only granted to those corporations that exclusively and directly serve the promotion of charitable, benevolent or churchly purposes.
As a result of the changes in the course of the non-profit package 2015, the new §§ 40a and 40b will be inserted into the BAO, which will lead to a softening of the principle of immediacy or exclusivity:
Beneficiary corporations can use this new regulation to allocate their funds to another corporation if the latter promotes the same purpose. The prerequisite is that the receiving corporation must be a beneficiary institution within the meaning of section 4a (3) to (6), i.e. a university or the Academy of Science etc. or section 4b EStG (new from 1 January 2016)
Caution: The newly inserted § 4b EStG deals with the allocation to the assets of a foundation under private law or comparable assets (foundation, endowment or sub-foundation) and provides for a tax-deductible amount of EUR 500,000.00 within five years under certain conditions. The term «foundation» used in § 4b EStG corresponds to that of § 1 para. 1 StiftEG and thus does not include, for example, associations.
The restriction to certain institutions serves the donor corporation as a simple means of checking that the recipient of the funds actually has a beneficial interest. One can rely on the receiving body’s preferential treatment of donations without further examination.
The provision of services to corporate bodies which pursue the same privileged purposes, against payment but without the intention of making a profit, is not detrimental to privilege (e.g. the provision of personnel against payment at cost price).
The awarding of scholarships and prizes, if a university, the Austrian Academy of Sciences or a university of applied sciences decides on this awarding, for
scientific research
teaching duties in adult education and for
related scientific publications and documentation, or for
scholarships to students at the institution concerned
The above-mentioned new rules and exceptions mean that tax advantages will continue to exist even if the corporation carries out several of the above-mentioned activities and does not merely pursue direct promotion of preferential purposes, as was previously the case. This means that even a mere indirect promotion may be sufficient to obtain and maintain the tax benefits.
Solutio’s foundation partners will be happy to advise you on how to draft your foundation deeds or articles of association in such a way that you actually achieve the purpose of the support you are pursuing. Solutio provides a competent philanthropy advisor to assist you in selecting topics, projects or beneficiaries and the appropriate legal form.
