Information in English about charitable status in Germany

From time to time we publish informations about our work in English – you find a compilation here.  General information about our Alliance “Legal certainty for political advocacy” you will find here..

The most important informations:

Current releases in English:

  • Liberties Rule of Law Report 2023: No progress (Februar 21, 2023) - Our partner Civil Liberties Union for Europe has published it's annual Rule of Law Report, recommending Germany a reform of the tax law (Gemeinnützigkeitsrecht): "The tax law that is de facto regulating most civil society organisations in Germany must be reformed to allow and protect public participation and advocacy work of civil society organisations." (Key… read more
  • Rule of Law Report: Germany to ammend regulations on tax-exempt status (Juli 14, 2022) - With the current Rule of Law report, issued on July 13th, 2022, the European Commission recommends Germany to adress the challenges, civil society organisations under the tax-exempt public benefit status ("Gemeinnützigkeit") currently face. As stated in the Country Report (page 2), the German government should: "Take forward the plan to adapt the tax-exempt status for… read more
  • Civil Liberties Union for Europe: Liberties Rule of Law Report (Mai 12, 2022) - "The enabling framework for civil society in Germany continues to raise rule of law concerns regarding the freedom of assembly and the financing framework for civil society groups. Tax law and jurisprudence continue to severely restrict and sanction political and critical engagement as well as advocacy work of civil society organisations." (2022: Civil Liberties Union… read more
  • Challenges and abilities of civil society organizations to access resources (Februar 21, 2022) - In response to a Call for Inputs from the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Clément Nyaletsossi Voule for his report to be presented at the 50th session of the Human Rights Council the Alliance “Legal Certainty for political advocacy” sent a contribution to paint a… read more
  • 2019: Public benefit status of five NGOs was revoked (Dezember 19, 2019) - Since the Attac case in early 2019 the public benefit status of non-profit organisations in Germany has been repeatedly weakened. The current law is a threat to organisations engaging in non-profit political counselling and action – which poses a threat to all charities and human rights defenders. In 2019 we were faced with four more… read more
  • Interview Civic Space Watch about Attac case in Germany (Mai 8, 2019) - The platform "Civic Space Watch" is informing about the Attac case and therefore pulished an interview with Stefan Diefenbach-Trommer, the spokesperson of our coalition “Rechtssicherheit für politische Willensbildung” (Translated: Legal certainty for political advocacy). It focusses on how the Attac case will affect the wider civic space in Germany. Read more here: http://civicspacewatch.eu/germany-attac-ruling-could-affect-a-thousand-organisations-interview-with-coalition-for-legal-certainty-for-political-advocacy/ read more
  • Analysis of the Federal Fiscal Court’s Attac decision (März 14, 2019) - This is a translation of the German text "Analyse des Attac-Urteils", published at 14th march 2019. The judgment in the Attac case by the [German] Federal Fiscal Court (BFH = Bundes­finanz­hof) affects thousands of foundations (trusts) and societies. This judgment is not very helpful. It does not reflect the social developments of recent decades. At… read more
  • Effect of the Attac ruling on civic commitment (März 1, 2019) - This is a translation of the German text "Auswirkungen des Attac-Urteils auf zivilgesellschaftliches Engagement", published on 1. march 2019. The German Federal Fiscal Court’s (BFH) judgement in the Attac case will affect thousands of associations and foundations throughout Germany, and likewise influence the involvement of the many thousands of people who belong to them. Accordingly… read more
  • About the Alliance “Legal certainty for political advocacy” (Februar 28, 2019) - Civil society is charitable, pursues public benefit purposes, per se: a diverse political civil society gives our democracy life. Civil society encourages people to form opinions and stimulates debates that benefit the common good. It gives more people an opportunity to participate in social and political decision- making. It helps strengthen the rights, opinions and… read more