More transparency for donors: the donor register

Germans like to donate. And yet it is not always clear to citizens whether the recipient is reputable and whether the money is being used as the donor intended. In order to create more transparency, the nationwide donor register introduced on 01.01.2024 is intended to provide a remedy.

Donations to charitable organizations

The willingness to donate in Germany has increased over the last 10 years. On the one hand, of course, to do good and support charitable causes. On the other hand, donations usually also have a positive financial aspect that people and companies like to take advantage of: A donation to charitable organizations can be tax-deductible and thus reduce your own tax burden.

However, the prerequisite for this is that the organization is recognized as a non-profit organization by the tax office. Only then is the organization – e.g. a non-profit association or a charitable foundation – in a position to issue donation receipts that are recognized by the tax office.

Tip! You can find out the difference between charitable associations and charitable foundations in our articles “Foundation and association – Part 1: the charitable association” and “Foundation and association – Part 2: the charitable foundation”. However, charitable organizations have not yet been centrally recorded. As a result, the “market” of charitable organizations was confusing and not very transparent for potential donors – a reason for many not to donate.

What is the Beneficiary Register?

The register of donation recipients is now intended to remedy this situation. The Register of Beneficiaries is a central nationwide register that lists all charitable organizations that are allowed to issue donation receipts and are recognized as charitable by the tax office. The register is maintained by the Federal Central Tax Office and has been in operation since the beginning of the year.

After a few teething problems, it is now available to the public, even if it does not yet contain all the information. In principle, it is possible to access and view the Register of Beneficiaries via the website of the Federal Central Tax Office.

What is the aim of the register of beneficiaries?

The register is intended to create more transparency and legal certainty for potential donors. At the same time, it forms the basis for simplifying the deduction of donations and tax assessment for the tax authorities.

Entry in the register: a prerequisite for non-profit status?

The register is therefore informative and ensures greater transparency in the world of NPOs. However, the register of beneficiaries has no legal implications. This is because the register has no constitutive effect. This means that whether an NPO is allowed to issue a donation receipt does not depend on whether it is listed in the Donor Register.

Furthermore, the entry in the register has no effect on whether or not an NPO is recognized as a non-profit organization.

That would also be fatal at the moment. Because the register is currently not complete. The Federal Central Office itself points this out: The register is now only gradually being filled.

Who has to take care of the entry in the register?

It is obvious that non-profit organizations are now attaching greater importance to being entered in the register of grant recipients.

However, the organizations do not have to worry about this. The entry in the Beneficiary Register is made automatically. The state tax authorities automatically transmit the following information to the Federal Central Tax Office:

• business identification number,
• name,
• address,
• tax-privileged purposes in accordance with §§ 52 to 54 AO,
• status as a legal entity under public law,
• responsible tax authority,
• date of the last exemption notice, the annex to the corporation tax assessment notice or the assessment notice pursuant to Section 60a AO and
• account details with banks/credit institutions and payment service providers.

Data control makes sense

If you are part of an organization that is entered in the register of grant recipients, you should check the published information in the register for accuracy. If you find errors: point them out to the responsible tax office and ask them to correct the error.

For the future, it is recommended that you take a regular look at the register and check whether the information stored there is still correct.