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Liberty, equality, philanthropy

Fundraising | Nick Cater | 6 Apr 2010

Nick Cater is delighted by one announcement in the 2010 budget report.

The chancellor's announcement of tax relief on donations to charities elsewhere within the EU, plus Norway and Iceland, is fantastic news.
 
It has been a long time coming but the logic of unhampered cross-border giving within a community of free trade and free movement is inescapable.
 
As the taxation and customs commissioner, László Kovács, told the UK: "The rules of the internal market forbid discrimination of charities in other member states. Gifts to bona fide charities in other member states should get the same tax treatment as gifts made to domestic charities."

There are a few regrets about this new era of philanthropy sans frontières, not least that the UK was only the 10th country - behind Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Poland, Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands, France and Ireland - to come in line with the the new arrangements backed by the European Court well over a year ago.
 
And there is the potential problem of the requirement that recipient charities must be able to demonstrate they are run by a "fit and proper person", whatever that means, given the continued obsession of governments with the negligible risk of charities acting as conduits for terrorist funding.
 
But as all of Europe gradually falls in line, this can only be good for consumers, given the reality of our borderless lives, and for British charities, which can now seek out donations across a massive and growing market without the cost of establishing financial entities and physical offices in each country.
 
The potential for cutting costs and driving growth through online giving in a single US-scale economy is obvious, while the challenges of fundraising and communications will be fascinating.
 
For keeping the faith over many years, plaudits must go to the Transnational Giving Europe network, including the King Baudouin Foundation (KBF) in Belgium and our own Charities Aid Foundation, and to the research KBF supported to establish the givingineurope.org portal, which has documented in detail the complexity and costs of cross border giving.
 
But there is still more to do in friction-free philanthropy: today Europe, tomorrow the world!
 

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