Section 848A of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 provides a scheme for tax relief on donations to eligible charities and other approved bodies. The administration of this scheme is the responsibility of the Revenue Commissioners. A list of the bodies that qualify for the scheme is available on Revenue's website at the following link: http://www.revenue.ie/en/business/authorised-charities-resident.html. For donations made pre-2013, the precise arrangements for allowing tax relief vary depending on whether the donor is a PAYE taxpayer only, a chargeable person subject to self-assessment or a company. For a PAYE only donor, the relief is given on a “grossed up” basis to the eligible charity or approved body, as the case may be, rather than by way of a separate claim to tax relief by the donor. The claim for refund is made by the eligible charity or approved body in respect of a PAYE donor. In the case of a self-assessed donor, that individual claims the relief and there is no grossing up arrangement. In the case of a company, it will claim a deduction for the donation as if it were a trading expense.
The Revenue Commissioners have advised me that their obligation to observe confidentiality for charities and small groups of taxpayers would preclude them from disclosing the amounts of tax relief allowed to individual approved bodies under the donations scheme. However, they have provided details of the total amounts refunded under the scheme, in respect of PAYE donations only, to approved bodies during 2010 and 2011 and these are shown in the following table:
Year
|
Amount
|
2010
|
€30.2m
|
2011
|
€26.3m
|