12 facts you need to know about charities

Charity advertisement

In order for an organization to collect as much money as possible for charitable assistance, it is necessary to find sponsors, philanthropists, and volunteers. That is, first of all, you need to let as many people as possible know about your organization. This can be done using media.

Funding a charity

Before registering an organization, it is necessary to plan a system according to which funds will flow into the fund. One of the fund's tasks will be to attract sponsors.

Important! The organization's property consists of contributions in cash or in kind and cannot be used by the founders for personal purposes!

Sponsors and sources of donations may include:

• Contributions from the fund participants themselves;
• Donations from ordinary people, including money, things, food or feed, etc.;
• Grant preparation;
• Funds received from activities carried out by volunteers;
• Profit received from investments;
• Funds received from charitable events.

What is a charitable foundation and how does it work?

The charitable foundation works to collect voluntary donations and transfer them to those who need these funds. The foundation pays for its work from its own money, so a certain part of all donations goes to pay for further work.

A charitable foundation also has the right to engage in entrepreneurship, but only if it is related to the main purpose of the work, and the profit received from it goes only to the purposes of the foundation itself.

Laws regulating the work of the Charity Fund:

• Federal Law 135 'On charitable activities and volunteering.
• Part 1 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation of November 30, 1994 N 51-FZ

Typically, a fund is created through voluntary donations from its members and other sponsors. The fund's property is transferred to it by the founders as contributions, the goals are stated in the charter, and the main body is the board of trustees.

The principle of operation of the charitable foundation is simple. The Charitable Foundation announces a collection of funds to help, for example, flood victims left homeless in one of the regions of the country. Money is received using the specified details and goes to the general “storage”. Part of the financial assistance remains in the foundation to further pay for its work, since it has no other sources of financing. The rest of the money is transferred to the above-mentioned group of the population - that is, to the curators of a public organization located in their region.

Registration of a charitable organization

To register a charitable organization, its participants need to contact the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation, its regional division. When applying, you will need to submit an application, a receipt for payment of the state fee and a package of some documents. Let's take a closer look.

1. Payment of state duty. The state duty for 2020 is 4,000 rubles. When filling out the receipt, it is important to indicate the details of the applicant who is submitting documents for registration of the fund to the Ministry of Justice. You will need to provide both the original and a copy of the receipt. Details for paying the fee can be obtained directly from the Ministry of Justice or found on their official website ru;
2. Statement. An application in form RN0001 is filled out in two copies, one of which must be certified by a notary. The application must indicate the applicant's contact information: full name, address, telephone number. The sheets attached to the application indicate information about the founders, as well as the type of economic activity that they plan to engage in.
3. A package of documents, which includes constituent documents:

• Charter (3 copies), which contains information about the goals and objectives of the fund, the executive body, legal address, liquidation procedure, etc.;
• The decision to create a fund;
• Memorandum of association;
• Minutes of the first meeting of the founders, reflecting the direction of the fund’s activities, the board of directors, responsible persons and its tasks.

In addition to the listed constituent documents, the future foundation must provide a document confirming the right to locate the organization in the premises. The supporting document may be a certificate of ownership of the property, if the premises are owned by one of the founders, or if the premises are leased - a letter of guarantee for the owner’s consent to place the fund on the premises, as well as supporting documents of the owner of the premises.

Method of address. The applicant can contact the Ministry of Justice in person or send documents by mail. In addition, there are special organizations that deal with the opening of legal entities, including the registration of a non-profit organization in the form of a charitable foundation.

Taxation of charitable activities

Foundations and private philanthropists are entitled to benefits. Their goal is to encourage individuals to give to charity. Let's consider all the tax features when sending funds to help others:

• Legal entities that allocate funds from their own profits to charity do not have tax deductions.
• Benefits of 1-4.5% are offered only to certain individuals. It is calculated from the amount that is sent to the regional budget.
• Deductions can also be received by some organizations that allocate funds to the development of culture and science. These companies must be included in the department's lists.
• If products are given to any person for the purpose of charity, VAT is not paid. However, this rule is only relevant if the transfer of the object is completed correctly. In the opposite situation, the tax inspectorate will have questions.
• VAT is not charged only for products that are directly transferred to beneficiaries. Otherwise, VAT is paid. For example, the company donated 100 T-shirts to an orphanage free of charge. In this case, VAT will not be calculated. However, if a company decides to set up a charity under which T-shirts are sold, VAT will be charged.
• The organization has the right to include expenses for charity in the list of expenses, which will reduce the tax burden. However, in this case you will have to give up tax benefits. The organization needs to draw up an application waiving preferential conditions and submit it to the Federal Tax Service. This measure is relevant if the company regularly engages in charity work and spends a lot of money on it.

IMPORTANT! To receive tax benefits, you must submit a tax return to the Federal Tax Service on time. The corresponding expenses are reflected in section 7. The transfer of products or provision of services for charitable purposes is assigned code 1010288. It is placed in the first column, line 010.

ATTENTION! According to subparagraphs 16 and 34 of Art. 270 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, expenses for charity will not be taken into account when calculating income tax.

Deadline for registering a charitable organization in Russia

No later than three months from the date of the decision to create a fund, it is necessary to submit documents for registration. The Ministry of Justice reviews the documents for no more than 1 month and makes a decision on registration or refusal to register the fund.

Important! If registration of a charitable foundation is refused, the paid state duty is not refunded.

After the Ministry of Justice makes a positive decision, it issues a registration certificate to the fund. The certificate contains information about the name of the fund, location and code assigned to it. From the moment the certificate is issued, the organization is recognized as legally established and registered with the tax authority.

Cost of funds registration services

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Activities of the charitable foundation

A feature of charitable activities is that at least 80% of all donations must be directed to non-profit purposes. For example, the foundation will decide to hold a charity center in support of sick children. Proceeds of at least 80% must be directed to children, and only 20% must be used to pay for the operating expenses of the fund.

However, this does not mean that the fund cannot conduct activities that will lead to the organization making a profit. The main thing is that the profit received should not be directed to the personal goals of the participants, but to charitable and non-profit needs (Read also the article ⇒ Peculiarities of accounting and tax accounting in a non-profit organization).

Charitable and public foundations

Common types of foundations are charitable foundations and community foundations. A charitable foundation is created to carry out charitable activities in the interests of certain categories of persons or society as a whole.

The second commonly registered type of foundation is the public foundation. It is registered to direct the property of such a fund to socially beneficial purposes. Public foundations differ in their territorial scope of activity. They are: local, regional, interregional, all-Russian and international. Local public funds cover the territory of the local government, where they extend their activities. Regional public foundations extend their activities to the territory of one subject of our country. Interregional public funds operate on the territory of at least two constituent entities of our state. To do this, such a fund must have structural divisions in the regions where the fund operates. The All-Russian Public Fund extends its activities to the territory of more than half of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. It, like an interregional public fund, is required to have its own structural divisions in all regions of the fund’s activities. As for an international fund, in order for it to be such, it must have at least one structural unit outside our country.

Charitable fund participants

Due to the specific type of activity carried out by the foundation, its participants are the following persons:

• Volunteers. Such participants are not accepted into the fund’s staff; they provide all possible assistance free of charge;
• Lawyers. A lawyer is accepted into the fund to resolve legal and registration issues, as well as to contact government agencies;
• Workers who accept applications and deal with procurement issues;
• Workers who search for sponsors.

As a rule, the fund's staff is quite small, it includes no more than 5-7 people. More staff is required only when the fund decides to expand the scope of its activities. The remaining employees are recruited on a voluntary basis and work for free.

Situation in which the Procedure is applicable:

The Foundation is a non-membership non-profit organization established by citizens and (or) legal entities on the basis of voluntary property contributions and pursuing charitable, cultural, educational or other social, publicly beneficial goals.

A charitable foundation has the right to carry out charitable activities aimed at achieving the goals for which it was created, or those specified in the law “On Charitable Activities and Volunteering (Volunteering)”

A charitable foundation can be created by one or more founders, both individuals and legal entities. The number of founders is not limited.

In general, no special requirements or restrictions have been established for founders, with the exception of one. State authorities and local governments, state and municipal unitary enterprises and institutions cannot establish charitable foundations. State bodies and local governments have the right only to attract volunteers (volunteers) to carry out voluntary (volunteer) activities.

The composition of the founders of the fund can be replenished by new persons by unanimous decision of the founders.

At the same time, the right of the fund founder to withdraw from the founders is provided. But if the fund’s founders are the last or only founder, then before sending information about his exit to the registration authority (the Ministry of Justice of Russia), he is obliged to transfer his rights as a founder to another person.

Property relations between the founders and the foundation are built on the principle of mutual independence. The founders are not liable for the obligations of the fund, and the fund is not liable for the obligations of its founders.

The fund's property is formed from various sources: contributions from the founders; charitable donations, including those of a targeted nature (grants) in cash or in kind; income from non-operating operations; receipts from activities to attract resources (conducting campaigns to attract philanthropists and volunteers, including organizing entertainment, cultural and other public events, conducting donation campaigns, holding lotteries and auctions with the sale of property, etc.); income from business activities; income from the activities of business entities established by the fund; labor of volunteers (volunteers) and other sources not prohibited by law.

A charitable foundation does not have the right to use more than 20 percent of the financial resources it spends during the financial year to pay administrative and managerial personnel. This restriction does not apply to the remuneration of persons participating in the implementation of charitable programs.

Unless otherwise specified by the benefactor or the foundation's charitable program, at least 80 percent of charitable donations must be used for charitable purposes within a year from the date the foundation receives the donation.

Refusal to register a charitable organization

In some situations, the Ministry of Justice may refuse to register a fund. Let's look at these situations in more detail:

• The documents submitted for registration contradict the legislation and the Constitution of the Russian Federation;
• An organization with this name has already been previously registered;
• The name of the fund was chosen incorrectly, that is, it offends the national or religious feelings of citizens, or contradicts morality;
• The documents submitted for registration are not presented in full;
• The legal entity indicated in the documents cannot act as a founder;
• The information provided in the registration documents contains false information.

If all documents are prepared properly and contain correct information, the organization should not be refused registration. But if this does happen, you can submit the documents again. This is not prohibited by law. The main thing is that the reasons for which the Ministry of Justice refused registration should be eliminated (

Charitable accounting

Charity expenses are included in other expenses. They are recorded in account 91. It will also be necessary, according to Order of the Ministry of Finance No. 94, to open a sub-account. Let's look at the wiring used:

• DT91, subaccount “Other expenses” KT50, 51. Transfer of money to charity.
• DT91, subaccount “Other expenses” KT 01, 10, 41. Transfer of products free of charge.
• DT91, subaccount “Other expenses” KT20, 29. Services provided as charity.
• DT91, subaccount “Other expenses” KT60. Purchasing products in the interests of the beneficiary.

Charity on behalf of the company must be recorded in accounting. It also requires full documentary support. That is, any action related to charity must be recorded in documents. The following papers are usually prepared:

• Agreement on the provision of free assistance. Relevant for expenses over 3 thousand rubles.
• Certificate of transfer of products or certificate of completed work. The act must have the signature of the person receiving assistance.

All accounting information must be confirmed by primary documentation. Each posting is supplemented with information about the document.