Charities and non-profit organisations received donations of nearly R60-billion rand between March 2000 and February 2001 from the public, according to South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel. This, however, dropped to about R41-billion in the 2001/02 financial year.
In reply to a question from African Christian Democratic Party member, Kent Durr, the minister said this figure was based on deductions for donations against tax returns to the South African Revenue Services (Sars) as donations to qualifying organisations. A total of 28 996 individuals were involved in providing the donations.
Manuel said based on a survey done by the Sars corporate tax centre for the year 2000/01 tax year “it is estimated that companies annually donate and claim at least R200-million rand for income tax purposes.”
From tax returns processed by Sars for the period March 2001 to February 2002, 24 223 individuals were allowed to deduct R40,7-million from their income as donations to qualifying organisations.
He said that in that year 625 companies were allowed to make deductions of donations from their income, but he did not provide a figure for the total donation value for that year. – I-Net Bridge