The new patronage law aspires to represent an opportunity for the global of foundations, entities, and actors of the third sector, who have seen improved tax deductions for donations with the reform of the regulations. This modification, which came into force on January 1, implies an improvement for donors, and it is the entities that must take advantage of it to try to obtain more resources, as stated by the experts who participated in the conference The novelties of the reform of the Patronage Law. Advantages for companies and opportunities for fundraising, organized by the Fundació Catalunya Cultura.
"We are the foundations that have to make a call to our social bases. This active call and the changes in patronage will lead to a new injection of resources for the third sector," according to the president of the board of directors of the Spanish Association of Fundraising, Glòria Oliver. How to achieve it? By being in contact with their bases and highlighting the work of the entities, and remembering that these tax changes allow them to donate more, but maintaining the same impact on their pockets: "If before a person donated 15 euros a month, from January 1 they can donate 20 and it will cost them exactly the same," due to the expansion of tax deductions. The same applies to companies: those that donated 5,000 euros annually would maintain the same cost if they now donated 6,000 euros.
The also manager of the Fundació Pasqual Maragall has encouraged entities and foundations to communicate these changes to society to boost donations, but without focusing only on the fiscal aspect: "We have a project behind us, we are not tax-deducting machines." Recalling and adopting the position expressed by the president of the Catalan Coordinator of Foundations, Eugènia Bieto, in an interview with The New Barcelona Post, Oliver has stressed that "nobody donates money to a foundation just to deduct taxes," and has defended that society is supportive and aware that the world can be transformed through non-profit entities: "It is up to us to push, communicate and talk to our social bases so that the changes in patronage become resources that reach our causes."
The regulations also include a substantial change regarding the possibility of receiving gifts or rewards for donations, which until now were not admitted"If with the previous law an average quota of 166 euros has been achieved from four million taxpayers who now deduct income tax in Spain, we have to make a call and raise it above the average of 250 euros" in tax deductions, Oliver defended.
In the same vein, economist and former Member of Congress Ferran Bel, who also participated in the conference held at the Col·legi d'Economistes de Catalunya, expressed his views. Bel, one of the architects of the new law, also set the challenge of increasing the number of people making donations, from the current four million at the state level to between 4.5 million and five million: "We believe that the reform is moving in the right direction; if we stagnate at four million, perhaps we will have to think about some additional incentive."
The new features incorporated by the law include this expansion of tax deductions, but they go further, as Enric Rius reviewed. The tax advisor and member of the working group on the law of the Fundació Catalunya Cultura recalled that the new regulation extends the 80% deduction for individuals from the first 150 euros to 250 euros. Above this figure, the percentage goes from 35% to 40% deduction. In the case of legal entities such as companies, deductions in corporate tax also increase from 35% to 40%. In addition, the rule reduces the necessary years to obtain higher deductions from four to three, with an additional 5% for individuals, and 10% for companies.
The renewed regulation also includes a substantial change regarding the possibility of receiving gifts or rewards for donations, which until now were not admitted and invalidated donations. From the entry into force of the law, rewards are admitted as long as they do not exceed 15% of the value of the donation, with a maximum of 25,000 euros, as Rius recalled at the conference. The reform of the regulation was approved by the Council of Ministers in December and was validated by Congress in January, recovering the text that the Chamber approved in April but which was paralyzed by the early election.
Its approval responded to a historical demand from multiple actors linked to patronage. Among them, the Fundació Catalunya Cultura, which has worked to have this new state law, and continues to do so for Catalonia to have its own regulations in this area, as highlighted by lawyer Miquel Àngel Vallès during the conference promoted by the entity.
The director of the foundation, Maite Esteve, has celebrated the step forward represented by the modification of the state norm, but has insisted on the need to promote a Catalan patronage law. And she closed the day with a cry to entities, foundations and actors linked to this field: "Make an apology for patronage and explain to everyone what it means." With a clear objective: to break stereotypes that give patronage a negative slant, and to extol it as a way of supporting initiatives linked to fields such as art, the social sphere and science, which make patronage a key element for the Welfare State: "People don't donate to deduct taxes, people donate because of their sense of responsibility towards their communities."