Volunteer lump sum and waiver statement
December 14, 2021 | 80,00 EUR | answered by Steuerberater Bernd Thomas
Good evening. We are a small non-profit organization with 250 members. There are about 20 volunteers, each of whom does not receive any money for their work, all of them carry out their volunteer work in their free time alongside their job.
We would like to provide the volunteers with a standard contract for their volunteer work since January 1, 2021 and have them sign this contract along with a waiver declaration in December 2021.
For the fee they are waiving, which is approximately 400.00 euros for each of them for 2021, we would like to issue them a donation receipt. Can you advise us if this approach is correct? The organization has always had an average of 8,000.00 euros in the account. Can we distribute the contracts in December that were supposed to take effect from January 1, 2021?
Is the board allowed to receive a volunteer allowance as well?
We have attached a brief document containing all the information. Additionally, we have attached the organization's statutes.
We would appreciate a review of our planned approach.
Dear questioner,
I am happy to answer your inquiry based on the information provided in the context of an initial consultation on frag-einen.com. The response is based on the facts you have provided. Missing or incorrect information can affect the legal outcome.
The waiver of a claim for reimbursement of expenses (so-called expense donations) can also be deducted as a donation according to § 10b para. 1 sentence 1 EStG. The prerequisite for this is that the claim for reimbursement of expenses (e.g. travel costs) was actually and seriously granted by a contract or the statute of the recipient of the donation before the activity that gives rise to the claim for reimbursement began. This means that the reimbursement claim must not have been granted on the condition of waiver or immediate re-payment (§ 10b para. 3 sentence 6 EStG). (Kiehl/Feldgen in Fuhrmann/Kraeusel/Schiffers, eKomm Ab VZ 2020, § 10b EStG Rz. 43 (update of 19.10.2021)
In your case, a waiver declaration is required as a condition, and everything is done retroactively. Therefore, this is not a viable option.
Best regards,
Bernd Thomas
Tax advisor
Information according to DL-InfoV: Tax advisor Dipl.-Kaufmann (FH) Bernd Thomas, Tax advisor, Jöhrensstraße 1, 30559 Hannover, member of the Tax Advisor Chamber of Lower Saxony, membership number 146580, professional liability insurance with R+V Allgemeine Versicherung AG, Mittlerer Pfad 24, 70499 Stuttgart, insurance sum: 250,000 euros for each individual claim; annual maximum coverage: 1,000,000 euros (for all damages in one insurance year); the professional regulations apply, in particular the Tax Advisory Act (StBerG), implementing regulations to the Tax Advisory Act (DVStB), professional code (BOStB), Tax Advisor Compensation Regulation (StBVV) (regulations can be viewed at: https://www.berufsrecht-handbuch.de/, http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/stberg, www.gesetze-im-internet.de/stbvv/), the professional title of tax advisor was awarded in the Federal Republic of Germany.
