Donations to charity are tax deductable. The so-called anbi status, given to institutions promoting public welfare subject to certain conditions, also applies to churches and mosques.

By including religious institutions in the list of ‘good causes’ millions of euros are lost to the nation’s coffers each year. The majority of people in the Netherlands think this is an anomaly and want it to stop. Trouw asked MPs what they think.
PVV: end tax deduction rule altogether
PPV MP Roland van Vliet says he can imagine people objecting to the state supporting religious institutions, including mosques, through tax deduction. ‘That is not a good thing. And of course we object to anything that would stimulate financial support to Islamic institutions. We don’t really agree with the whole construct of tax deduction for gifts. If you support a good cause you do it from a generous impulse. If tax deduction is the reason for giving then we’re on a slippery slope.’
CDA: Not hinder
‘Charity is the cement that holds society together’, according to CDA MP Elly Blanksma. ‘We think it’s important that society is helped by society itself. The tax rule for gifts was put in place to take away impediments to donating to charity, not to stimulate it.’
Blanksma doesn’t agree with the argument that the tax rule contravenes the separation between church and state. It’s not the state but people themselves who decide who benefits from their gift, whether it be a sports organisation, a musical society or a religious institution, she says.
SP: Hate mongering
The SP doesn’t want to differentiate between religious and non-religious when it comes to tax deduction for gifts. ‘We would only object if an institution breaks the law, for instance in the case of hate mongering by a preacher’, says SP MP Farshad Bashir. But if you start taking the tax advantage away from institutions that don’t happen to be up your street, it’s probably time to do away with the anbi status altogether, which, by the way, means political parties no longer benefit either.’
SGP: Vital in times of crisis
The orthodox SGP is adamant the tax rule should stand but, like his fellow parliamentarians thinks it is up to the individual which institution to support. SGP MP Elbert Dijkgraaf says that his party would prefer to support ‘Christian charities only’ but that the separation between church and state prohibits making distinctions based on religion.
He also claims that giving to the church, instead of costing the state money, is actually helping it to save some. ‘Churches often support food banks and debt management organisations. In times of crisis such as we’re seeing how private initiative has a vital role to play in keeping society on its feet’, he says.
VVD: better than subsidies
The VVD doesn’t distinguish between charities, says MP Helma Neppérus. ‘A church is the same as a heart foundation, as far as I’m concerned’, she says. ‘I prefer this system to giving subsidies to good causes’.
Neppérus, who says she doesn’t deduct the money she gives to charity, thinks it would be a good idea to clarify what constitutes ‘a good cause’. ‘The terms are a little bit vague at the moment.’
GroenLinks: Tragedy
GroenLinks thinks religious institutions meet the good cause criteria. ‘We have to look at the public welfare aspect. Religious or non-religious, it doesn’t matter, says GroenLinks MP Bruno Braakhuis.
‘Religious organisations are meaningful to many groups in society because they provide social and cultural cohesion. And they also give foreign aid. In this way they take over many of the tasks that would otherwise fall to the state’, he says.
Although individuals and the good causes they support will now be benefitting from a more generous tax deduction rule under the tax plan for 2012, Braakman calls the €500,000 government cutbacks on subsidies for good causes and public institutions ‘a tragedy.’
PvdA: Verdict
MP Ed Groot emphasises that by allowing gifts to be deducted the state does not pronounce a verdict on the desirability of supporting any of them. ‘If you start saying that gifts to churches are not to be tax deductable and gifts to say Greenpeace are you are becoming politically involved.’ Groot also mentions the work religious institutions do. ‘They help the third world, do work with drug addicts. This work would suffer if the fiscal advantage were taken away.’
D66: Cold comfort
‘It’s not the prettiest of laws but it should remain as it is’, a D66 spokesman says. ‘In this way cultural organisations will get something at least, cold comfort though that may be.’