Charitable Donation Scheme
How to become an approved body?
If you are a charity and wish to become an approved body, you must:
- apply for Authorisation
- and
- hold charitable tax exemption for a period of at least two years.
Where eligible charities granted charitable tax exemption are amalgamated or reorganised, that exemption can continue to apply if the body or bodies:
- held Revenue authorisation
- and
- had met all relevant conditions prior to restructuring for a period of at least two years.
You must submit an application through Revenue Online Service (ROS) by the following steps:
- sign into ROS
- go to the 'Other Services' section in the 'My Service' tab
- select 'Charities and Sports Bodies eApplications'.
You must attach the following with the application:
- your latest financial accounts including a breakdown of income and expenditure
- latest annual report, or details of recent activities carried out by the charity.
Your latest financial accounts should be signed by the two trustees if the annual income is less that €100,000.
Your latest financial accounts should be audited and signed by the auditor if the annual income is greater that €100,000.
Authorisation to operate the Charitable Donation Scheme will be valid for a period of up to five years. You can apply to renew your authorisation through ROS.
For the purposes of the Charitable Donation Scheme, an automatically approved body is:
- primary, second and third level institutions which have programmes approved by the Minister for Education and Skills
- institutions that provide courses which are certified by Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI)
- institutes that are approved for Education in the Arts by the Minister for Finance
- organisations that promote human rights as detailed under Section 209 Taxes Consolidation Act 1997.
To operate the Charitable Donation Scheme (CDS) you should complete a CDS Tax Registration Form. This form should be submitted to the Charities and Sports Exemptions Unit through MyEnquiries on ROS.
You do not need to complete a CDS Tax Registration form if you are a school with:
Your school is automatically registered and can submit claims under the Charitable Donation Scheme.
Next: What is a qualifying donation?