Investigating human rights 2.2.3 Finances Deductibility of donations as special expenses The 2015/2016 Tax Reform Act revised the prerequisites for successfully claiming donations as special expenses. The amendment not only affects donors but also has a significant effect on the institutions and facilities that are associated with organisations which are the beneficiaries of donations. In the past, persons who wished to have their donations included in the tax assessment as special expenses had to document them with donation confirmations issued by the recipient organisation. With the introduction of the employee tax assessment which does not require an application by the 2015/2016 Tax Reform Act, an obligation is placed on beneficiary organisations to collect data from their donors, to use this data to obtain the so-called “encoded sector-specific personal identifiers for taxes and duties” from the master data register authority and to report this information to the tax administration, together with the individual donation amount, by the end of February of the following year. Donation recipient must ascertain data Organisations that do not (cannot or will not) fulfil these obligations will be deleted from the list of beneficiary organisations. In the course of the reporting year, some beneficiary organisations, particularly smaller ones, contacted the AOB and expressed their concerns that the bureaucratic (financial and personnel) expenses of collecting this data was too burdensome for them and that a portion of the donated money would have to be used for this administrative expense, which was neither the intention of the organisations nor the donors. Big burden on donation recipients Donors also expressed their concerns about having to disclose what they considered to be sensitive data to organisations (“the transparent donor”) if they intended to continue deducting their donations. The AOB had concerns regarding the consequences for individuals if the recipient organisation fails to report the donation to the tax administration or if the report contains errors. AOB‘s concerns Users of FinanzOnline (an online tool which allows access to one’s individual financial administration) can see in advance what amount was reported for them by what recipient organisations. However persons who do not have access to this online tool, must wait for the issuance of the income tax assessment notice. What they have in common is a concern that they themselves must make the effort to rectify any omitted or incorrect report by the recipient organisation and then demand that the tax assessment notice is updated accordingly. 53