Non-profit organizations may soon have access to a donation database, as GroKo is planning to establish such a system.
BERLIN - A central, publicly accessible database will be established to register charitable, benevolent, or religious organizations that seek tax advantages and issue donation receipts, according to an amendment to the 2020 Tax Code. This agreement between the Union and SPD was reported by the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (Saturday editions).
The Federal Central Tax Office will maintain the register, serving as the foundation for digital processing of donation receipts and automatic integration into tax returns. Organizations classified as extremist by the federal or state constitution protection reports will be excluded. The justification states that the recipient register supports volunteers in their fundraising efforts and creates legal certainty, transparency, and aids citizens and institutional donors in identifying organizations to support financially or personally.
The new register aims to simplify the donation receipt process, forming a building block for the pre-filled tax return, eliminating the need for a paper donation receipt to claim tax deductions. To qualify for inclusion in the register, the legal entity, office, or corporation must pursue charitable, benevolent, or religious purposes and have an "inland connection." In the future, the Federal Central Tax Office will determine whether an organization is extremist and should be excludable.
Currently, individual tax offices are responsible for this determination when deciding on the tax status of an organization.
In Germany, charitable organizations seeking tax advantages and status for issuing donation receipts generally need to register with the relevant authorities. The Federal Central Tax Office (Bundeszentralamt für Steuern, BZSt) manages various tax-related registrations, including obtaining tax-exempt status, which is crucial for issuing donation receipts. Organizations might be listed in relevant databases or registers following tax-exempt status acquisition. However, specifics about a central, publicly accessible database for tax advantages and donation receipts in Germany are not detailed in the available information. It is possible that the BZSt or other tax authorities maintain records of registered charitable organizations.
The new database managed by the Federal Central Tax Office (Bundeszentralamt für Steuern, BZSt) will serve as a central, publicly accessible register for charitable, benevolent, or religious organizations seeking tax advantages and issuing donation receipts. Organizations excluded from this register will be those classified as extremist by the federal or state constitution protection reports.
