Charities grow while tax refunds decrease
Howard Lake | 30 June 2008 | News
Irish people are facing more requests than ever for donations even while the amount of donations qualifying for tax refunds decreased in the last year, according to figures released by the Revenue Commissioners.
Since 2000 there has been a 50 per cent increase in the number of charities in Ireland. Last year, Revenue made refunds of more than €25million to charities in relation to qualifying donations of €46.8 million made by 80,974 individual PAYE donors. In the previous year, refunds of €28.5 million were made, based on donations of €58.4 million by 84,373 PAYE donors.
The Revenue Commissioners also show that 7,351 organisations – including charities and some educational and sporting bodies – now qualify for an exemption from tax on charitable grounds. This compares with exemptions for 4,881 organisations in 2000.
Of the organisations that qualify for the exemption, almost half – some 3,277 – are classified by Revenue as community bodies, while 1,888 are educational and 1,162 are religious. The remaining 1,024 are organisations that tackle poverty.
The increase in the number of organisations being granted a charitable tax exemption has been relatively steady since 2000, with between 300 and 400 new exemptions granted annually.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.