Donation deduction 

Are you making donations as a company or private individual to foundations or associations? You may be entitled to the donation deduction. Under certain conditions you can deduct that from your income, or (for entrepreneurs) on your profit. Read below under what conditions you are entitled to the donation deduction. 

What is a donation? 

The fiscal meaning of donation is; ‘voluntary favours for which no immediate compensation is required’. In some cases there is a matter of compensation. For example, in the case of free tickets for a football match when donating to a sport association. 

ANBI

Donations can be eligible for tax decductions of they are made to a charity (ANBI). When you would like to know whether your donation is deductible, always check if  the organisation to which you are planning to donate is a charity. You can do so by searching for your charity in this Tax Authorities’ search machine*. 

UPDATE 2024
The deduction of donations in corporate income tax will change. As of 2024, making donations to an ANBI/SBBI will no longer be seen as a disguised profit distribution. As a result, these donations are no longer taxed (in income or dividend tax) and are no longer deductible from the profit (in the corporate income tax).

How much can you deduct? 

There is a non-deductible threshold of €60,- or 1% of the combined income. Your combined income is taxable income in a year, as set by the income tax. You can lower your taxable income with the donation deduction, with a maximum of 10%. When donating to a cultural charity, a higher donation deduction applies: You can increase the deduction with 25% to a maximum of €1.250. Are you an entrepreneur and do you want to apply the donation deduction on your profit? Then you can deduct a maximum of 50% of your profit, up to €100.000. 

Conditions donation deduction companies

Companies that pay taxes in the partnership tax, have the possibility to deduct donations in the partnership tax when they meet the following requirements: 

• the donations will have to be made to a charity;
• the donations can be found in the company administration;
• the deduction is a maximum of 6% of the profit. 

There is no threshold amount for companies that want to use the donation deduction in the partnership tax since 2012. Pay attention: starting in 2021, donation that are made in cash are no longer deductible. 

Would you like to know more?

You can read more about the fiscal regulations when deducting donation on the Tax Authorities website: When you want to make use of the donation deduction in the income tax, you can do so here  (in Dutch only*). More fiscal benefits and remaining deductibles are listed in these articles. Benefits for private individuals, entrepreneurs in the income tax and the partnership tax. Or read more about the ANBI and the (fiscal) organisation of foundations. Would you like to know more about the Law for Management and Supervision for foundations of 2021? Then read this article. 

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