Private Philanthropy

Taxation of non-profit organizations: International Fiscal Association Congress 1999, summary of the conference

The International Journal
of Not-for-Profit Law

Volume 1, Issue 3, March 1999

The appropriate income tax regime for the taxation of non-profit organizations (NPOs) has been widely debated in various countries for a long time. The issues of tax policy have not been settled. There is no clear consensus as to how NPOs should be taxed, what the appropriate criteria for exemptions should be, and to what extent contributions to NPOs should receive tax benefits. As NPOs in many countries are entering into new fields of activity, partly due to the withdrawal of direct governmental intervention, the discussion is as important, and in many countries as unsettled, as ever.

The International Fiscal Association is the world’s leading organization of tax experts. On October 11, 1999, in Eilat, Israel, approximately 1,000 of its members will discuss the taxation of non-profit organizations for an entire day. Before the conference, IFA, in collaboration with Kluwer, will publish a book containing the 30 national reports submitted to the conference, and a general report written by professor David Gliksberg, Israel. This volume will be of considerable interest also to non-tax professionals interested in the relationship between government and NPOs. The discussion leader on non-profit taxation will be professor dr juris Ole Gjems-Onstad, who is also the author of this brief contribution to IJNL.

What are the issues to be discussed at the Eilat meeting? The subject matter of the proceedings is limited to income taxation. Neither VAT nor excise taxes will be considered. As IFA is an international forum for tax debates, the international aspects of NPO-taxation will be an important part of the discussions at Eilat. The international aspects of NPO taxation are dealt with first as these are the problems where most states have not been able or willing to write explicit solutions into their statutes, regulations or tax treaties. In the next issue, we will publish a longer article presenting in detail the problems to be considered at Eilat.