Hi—so I looked into it, and asked a few people who tried to do that, and the answer is confusing. Their reading of the law is that yes, it’s deductible, but in practice it didn’t seem to work.
One person I asked said her financial advisor took it off her tax return. She said (translated):
Donations: only those made to French organizations, or to organizations based in a member state of the European Community or in a member state of the European Economic Area that has signed a tax treaty with France, provided that they pursue similar objectives and have similar characteristics to eligible organizations based in France and, in principle, approved.
It’s not really clear why it’s not deductible, though. But it didn’t seem to be possible.
I asked impots.gouv about effektiv spenden specifically, outlining how their scope would make donations to a similar French non profit eligible to a tax deduction in France.
The response from the administration was that “as mentioned on impots.gouv.fr, these donations are deductible”.
After a chat with ES, my understanding is that it’s up to every European country to decide what their definition of “charitable” entails, and whether a particular non profit falls under it (regardless of how it would be perceived in their country of origin). This is coherent with the financial advisor’s response as far as I can tell.
Ultimately, it might be worth doing the leg work beforehand and get confirmation from the tax office on a case by case basis.
Hi—so I looked into it, and asked a few people who tried to do that, and the answer is confusing.
Their reading of the law is that yes, it’s deductible, but in practice it didn’t seem to work.
One person I asked said her financial advisor took it off her tax return. She said (translated):
It’s not really clear why it’s not deductible, though. But it didn’t seem to be possible.
Btw, are you french?
Thanks for the additional data points.
I asked impots.gouv about effektiv spenden specifically, outlining how their scope would make donations to a similar French non profit eligible to a tax deduction in France.
The response from the administration was that “as mentioned on impots.gouv.fr, these donations are deductible”.
After a chat with ES, my understanding is that it’s up to every European country to decide what their definition of “charitable” entails, and whether a particular non profit falls under it (regardless of how it would be perceived in their country of origin). This is coherent with the financial advisor’s response as far as I can tell.
Ultimately, it might be worth doing the leg work beforehand and get confirmation from the tax office on a case by case basis.
Yes, I’m French 🙂🐓
Wow, that’s interesting.
I transfered your message once again—I’ll tell you what comes out of it.
(are you on the Altruisme Efficace France Slack, by the way?
I can also give you the work on french charities if you’re interested)
(are you on the Altruisme Efficace France Slack, by the way?
--> no
I can also give you the work on french charities if you’re interested)
--> sure, thanks!
Hi—I noticed I forgot to answer.
The EA France Slack link is here : https://www.altruismeefficacefrance.org/rejoindre-la-communaute
You can find the organisations here https://www.altruismeefficacefrance.org/organisations-recommandees
We also realised several cause areas pages in French, including one on the environment : https://www.altruismeefficacefrance.org/environnement