The Persche case: Removing the barriers to cross-border charitable giving?
Briefing in cooperation with the European Foundation Centre
, 10 March 2009
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Language:
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Event number:
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009D78
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This briefing will provide practitioners an opportunity to analyse and
discuss the consequences of the European Court of Justice’s judgment of
27 January 2009 in the Persche case (C-318/07).
The value to society of charitable giving and philanthropy is
especially great in a time of economic uncertainty. Many EU Member
States promote such giving by providing fiscal benefits, for example by
allowing donors to deduct the value of their gifts from their tax
returns. In most cases, however, such benefits are extended only to
donations made to charitable or public-benefit organisations within the
Member State concerned.
In the Persche case (C-318/07), a German national sought to deduct the
value of a significant donation of linen and toys he had made to a
public benefit foundation in Portugal. The German tax authorities
rejected this application in line with German law because the
beneficiary was established outside Germany. Mr Persche challenged this
decision and the German court referred the case to the ECJ.
The Court ruled that the German authorities’ refusal to grant the same
fiscal benefits to cross-border charitable donations as to domestic
ones contravenes the principle of free movement of capital. The case
raises a number of key questions, in particular how national tax
authorities determine whether a beneficiary of a cross-border donation
in another Member State is equivalent to an institution benefiting from
tax-deductible status in the Member State of the donor.
The briefing will explore these issues in detail, including how certain
Member States ? notably the Netherlands ? have already addressed them.
It will also consider what role a European Foundation Statute, on which
the European Commission published a feasibility study on 16 February
2009, might play.
Fees in €:
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Standard
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EU and ERA patrons
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Young lawyers and other groups
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Registration
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