Can a business claim against tax for donations made to a community entity?

[acidrain]

Apologies if the wording is a bit weird... its the best I could come up with right now.

While logically I'm thinking this is a really dumb question... I'm no where near informed about this sort of thing so am just seeking some confirmation.

In a nutshell, our wireless community is wanting to move the core server to a hosted cloud. Now firstly, we are not registered as an NPO yet, as government keeps sending our constitution back for changes and every time its a different change needed to be made ( long story ).

Obviously since it's donation driven, it's not so easy to just run along and open one so I was thinking of having my company host the cost of a cloud server for them in a form of a "donation". The question is: Can this be claimed against tax at the end of the year even though the entity is not yet registered as an NPO?

 

[Mavix]

No, you'll only be able to claim a deduction if you received a Section 18A certificate when you make the donation. So any donations made up to the point that it was registered as an NPO wouldn't be deductible.

 

[acidrain]

No, you'll only be able to claim a deduction if you received a Section 18A certificate when you make the donation. So any donations made up to the point that it was registered as an NPO wouldn't be deductible.

Thought as much... thanks

 

[FacELesS.]

Please note that just because an entity register themselves as an NPO doesn't mean they may issue S18A donation certificates.

To be able to issue S18A donation certificates one needs to register as a Public Benefit Organisation with SARS. This is a separate registration from the NPO registration and involves certain reporting requirements to maintain the registration.
SARS has a tax guide for PBO's which might be informative.

 

[acidrain]

Please note that just because an entity register themselves as an NPO doesn't mean they may issue S18A donation certificates.

To be able to issue S18A donation certificates one needs to register as a Public Benefit Organisation with SARS. This is a separate registration from the NPO registration and involves certain reporting requirements to maintain the registration.
SARS has a tax guide for PBO's which might be informative.

Thanks, I'll be sure to look into that as well then.

I assume such certificates can be given to anyone who donates or are there limitations to how many, to whom and for how much the certificate can be awarded for.