Quite a bit of money is currently being donated to various fundraisers. The donation campaign for Gert Regterschot, the dismissed lecturer from Eindhoven University of Technology who has been tutoring for 27 years, exceeds 35,000 euros. More than 27,000 euros have already been collected for the parents of 6-year-old Abdyrahman from Oss who drowned in Lith. Those are wonderful amounts, but what exactly remains?
Three donation campaigns have recently been in the news in Brabant:
- Collection for Gert Regterschot. Amount raised so far: 35,135 euros, via doneeractie.nl.
- Collection for parents of drowned boy in Lith. Amount raised so far: 27,503 euros, via supportactie.nl.
- Collection for Nikie, who lost her children in a family drama. Amount raised so far 52,500 euros, via supportactie.nl.
The donation platform
The above actions are ongoing doneeractie.nl and support.nl. Those sites earn from donations. Doneeractie.nl, for example, deducts 6 percent from the amount donated, while Steunactie.nl deducts 5 percent. In addition, there are transaction costs at both sites. At doneeractie.nl, every donor pays 85 cents per transaction. At Steunactie.nl it is 50 cents.
If you look at the donation campaign for Gert Regterschot, 1487 donations have been made at the time of writing (June 24). The transaction costs yielded almost 1264 euros for doneeractie.nl. Suppose the amount collected ultimately remains 35,135 euros, then another 2,108 euros will go to the donation platform. Add those amounts together and you have an amount of 3372 euros for the donation platform.
And what about the tax authorities?
The question then remains: does the recipient of the collected amount still have to pay something to the tax?
In the Netherlands it is arranged that you have to pay gift tax on a donated amount that exceeds 2418 euros. This amount applies per donor. So you can receive 2418 euros tax-free from different people.
With a fundraising campaign you have to deal with different people who donate money. For the gift tax, the Tax and Customs Administration looks at the individual donations, a spokesperson explains. “On the condition that it is clear who the recipient of the money is.” In concrete terms: If the individual donations remain below 2418 euros, no gift tax has to be paid. And so it is possible that a large amount collected can be donated tax-free. “It is advisable that someone keeps track of which amounts have been received from which donor,” the spokesperson adds.
Now it is possible that someone donates an amount higher than 2418 euros. Then you can submit a request for remission of the gift tax. “It must then concern a donation for essential living or necessary medical assistance from the person for whom the donation is intended. An example of this is when money is collected for necessary medical treatment abroad, which is not reimbursed by the health insurer and for which the donee does not have the means to pay the costs. Whether this is the case will be assessed on a case-by-case basis,” explains the spokesperson for the Tax and Customs Administration. Such a request must be submitted to the State Secretary of Finance.