France – nonprofit volunteers: you may be able to claim a credit for the expenses that you paid
You may be able to deduct from the amount of individual income tax that you owe the expenses that you personally pay as a volunteer of an approved nonprofit organization.
ELIGIBLE NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS
Eligibility requirements
To get a tax reduction, you can for example volunteer for an association governed by the law of July 1, 1901. This association can be of a:
- Philanthropic, educational, scientific, social, humanitarian, sporting, family, cultural nature…
- Contributing to the enhancement of the artistic heritage, the preservation of the natural environment or the dissemination of the French culture, language, and scientific knowledge.
The following organizations fall under that guideline:
- Private foundations and approved nonprofit organizations, university foundations, partnership foundations, corporate foundations.
- Nonprofit institutions of higher education or artistic education, public or private, of general interest.
- Associations of general interest carrying out concrete actions in favor of press pluralism.
- Public or private charitable organizations whose main activity is the presentation to the public of dramatic, lyrical, musical, choreographic, cinematographic, audiovisual and circus works or the organization of contemporary art exhibitions, provided that the donations are to support the charitable activity. Private organizations include nonprofit organizations and private foundations. Public organizations include the State, territorial collectivities, public establishments, public interest groups.
- Endowment funds
Your restrictions
The nonprofit organizations that you engage in as a volunteer must meet the following requirements:
- It is not a for-profit organization
- It has charitable purposes
- It hasn’t been organized for the benefit of a limited number of people.
ELIGIBLE TAXPAYERS
General
You must meet the following requirements to be eligible for the tax credit:
- The expenses that you incur must be strictly related to your volunteer activities at an approved nonprofit organization;
- The expenses that you incur must be supported;
- You expressly waive the right to have these expenses reimbursed;
- You paid these expenses during the tax year.
- You can claim the travel expenses that you incurred as a volunteer at a nonprofit organization. If you use a personal means of transportation, you can claim your gas bills, parking fees, tolls, and your mileage allowances.
Transportation costs
As a practical expedient, from January 1, 2022 you can use the 2022 standard mileage rate to evaluate your personal car, moped, scooter or motorbike eligible expenses. Before, you were required to use a volunteer specific standard mileage rate that the tax administration released each year.
AMOUNT OF THE TAX CREDIT
The amount of credit that you may claim depends on whether you volunteer at a nonprofit organization that provides support to people in difficulty or not.
Volunteering at a nonprofit organization that supports people in difficulty
These nonprofit organizations serve food free of charge and provide healthcare services to homeless or help them get housing.
If you volunteer at such a nonprofit organization, you may deduct from your income tax liability 75% of the expenses that you paid. However, these expenses cannot exceed 20% of your taxable income in France. In addition, the maximum amount that you can deduct from your tax liability is EUR562 for the tax year 2022. And in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Government temporarily allows you to deduct up to EUR750 for volunteer expenses that you paid in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023.
Volunteering with other associations
You may claim a credit of 66% of the expenses that you paid, with a cap of 20% of your taxable income in France. The amount of credit that you can deduct from your tax liability is also capped.
Volunteering consists in giving time to others free of charge or contributing to a cause. In 2019, there were 20 million volunteers in France, that’s 2 French people out of 5. The volunteering rate in nonprofit organizations as well as in political, religious, trade union and municipal organization has been stable over the past several years. However, the younger generations are becoming more and more involved with nonprofits while the older ones are less and less involved.