Do you know some promising tax-deductible French charities?
Wouldn’t it be useful to cast a wider net here by including all European charities?
In my understanding, donating to a charity in any European country provides tax deductions that are equal to those given to charities based in France. From the horse’s mouth:
Vous avez effectué un don au profit d’organismes agréés dont le siège est situé dans un Etat membre de l’Union Européenne ou dans un Etat partie à l’Espace économique européen ayant conclu avec la France une convention fiscale d’assistance administrative en vue de lutter contre la fraude et l’évasion fiscales.
Vous pouvez bénéficier d’une réduction d’impôt dans les mêmes conditions que pour les dons effectués au profit d’organismes situés en France.
Portez case 7 VA de la déclaration 2042 RICI le montant des dons versés aux organismes venant en aide aux personnes en difficulté (la limite de 1 000 € est commune avec la case 7UD) et indiquez case 7 VC de la 2042 RICI celui correspondant aux versements effectués aux autres organismes d’intérêt général.
So donations to—for instance—Ayuda Efectiva (Spain) or Effektiv Spenden (Germany) should be tax deductible in France as long as these orgs are recognized by respectively Spain and Germany for their charitable status.
Hi ! This is a good idea, and thanks for the links. This could especially be good for the Good Food Institute that has an EU branch.
However, it seems that some people from Altruisme Efficace France and Don Efficace looked into it and found that this was more complicated than that. Namely, the “organismes agréés”—what is it? Still, they looked at it from the angle of a “foundation”, not for an individual donation. I asked them about that, and an waiting for an answer. I’ll get back to you with more info.
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.
Wouldn’t it be useful to cast a wider net here by including all European charities?
In my understanding, donating to a charity in any European country provides tax deductions that are equal to those given to charities based in France. From the horse’s mouth:
So donations to—for instance—Ayuda Efectiva (Spain) or Effektiv Spenden (Germany) should be tax deductible in France as long as these orgs are recognized by respectively Spain and Germany for their charitable status.
Or am I missing something?
Resources:
https://www.impots.gouv.fr/particulier/questions/jai-fait-des-dons-une-association-que-puis-je-deduire
Form 2042 RICI
https://www.lexpress.fr/argent/droit/un-don-a-un-organisme-etranger-ouvre-droit-a-une-reduction-d-impot_1586740.html
Case C‑318/07 presented before the CJEU
Hi ! This is a good idea, and thanks for the links. This could especially be good for the Good Food Institute that has an EU branch.
However, it seems that some people from Altruisme Efficace France and Don Efficace looked into it and found that this was more complicated than that. Namely, the “organismes agréés”—what is it?
Still, they looked at it from the angle of a “foundation”, not for an individual donation. I asked them about that, and an waiting for an answer. I’ll get back to you with more info.
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