End the VAT Penalty on In-Kind Donations – EU Must Act Now!
Das Problem
Imagine a company with 500 perfectly good chairs they no longer need. A school nearby would love them. A refugee shelter could furnish three rooms. But instead of donating, the company pays to have them destroyed.
Not because they don't want to give. Because the law makes donating more expensive than destroying.
This is happening across Europe and worldwide, every single day.
The hidden tax that punishes generosity
In at least 16 EU countries — Germany, Austria, Belgium, Poland, the Netherlands, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania — companies that donate goods to charities must pay VAT on those donations, as if they had sold them.
The numbers don't add up for companies trying to do the right thing: roughly 65% of that VAT bill cannot be recovered. Which means donating costs real money, while destruction is simply a disposal fee. Two out of three companies that try to donate end up choosing destruction instead. Not greed — arithmetic.
The result? Over €23 billion worth of usable goods are destroyed every year in Europe alone. €400 billion worldwide. Food, clothing, furniture, electronics — gone. While NGOs and charities go without.
Who's already fighting this
innatura, a German nonprofit that has been connecting corporate surplus with social organisations since 2009, has been documenting this absurdity for years. They've appealed to the German government, published research, and even projected their demand onto the facade of the Federal Finance Ministry at night. The problem is well understood. The political will to fix it is what's missing.
sur.plus is now building the infrastructure to match companies with NGOs across Europe — laptops to schools, furniture to shelters, textiles to aid organisations. But even the best matching platform can't fix a tax system that punishes the act of giving.
What needs to change
- The EU must update its VAT rules to allow companies to donate goods to verified nonprofits without paying VAT on them. A legally sound way to do this already exists — it just needs political support to happen.
2. In the meantime, every EU country should introduce a clear, permanent exemption — not a temporary pandemic workaround, but a real rule that companies and charities can rely on.
3. Countries that already have working solutions (like France) should become the model for the rest of Europe, not the exception.
This is fixable. Right now.
New EU rules on sustainability reporting, supply chain responsibility, and product destruction are all pushing in the same direction. The legal groundwork exists. The NGOs are ready. The companies want to give.
All that's missing is a tax law that stops punishing them for it.
Sign this petition and tell the European Commission and your government: fix the law. Let companies donate.
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Das Problem
Imagine a company with 500 perfectly good chairs they no longer need. A school nearby would love them. A refugee shelter could furnish three rooms. But instead of donating, the company pays to have them destroyed.
Not because they don't want to give. Because the law makes donating more expensive than destroying.
This is happening across Europe and worldwide, every single day.
The hidden tax that punishes generosity
In at least 16 EU countries — Germany, Austria, Belgium, Poland, the Netherlands, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania — companies that donate goods to charities must pay VAT on those donations, as if they had sold them.
The numbers don't add up for companies trying to do the right thing: roughly 65% of that VAT bill cannot be recovered. Which means donating costs real money, while destruction is simply a disposal fee. Two out of three companies that try to donate end up choosing destruction instead. Not greed — arithmetic.
The result? Over €23 billion worth of usable goods are destroyed every year in Europe alone. €400 billion worldwide. Food, clothing, furniture, electronics — gone. While NGOs and charities go without.
Who's already fighting this
innatura, a German nonprofit that has been connecting corporate surplus with social organisations since 2009, has been documenting this absurdity for years. They've appealed to the German government, published research, and even projected their demand onto the facade of the Federal Finance Ministry at night. The problem is well understood. The political will to fix it is what's missing.
sur.plus is now building the infrastructure to match companies with NGOs across Europe — laptops to schools, furniture to shelters, textiles to aid organisations. But even the best matching platform can't fix a tax system that punishes the act of giving.
What needs to change
- The EU must update its VAT rules to allow companies to donate goods to verified nonprofits without paying VAT on them. A legally sound way to do this already exists — it just needs political support to happen.
2. In the meantime, every EU country should introduce a clear, permanent exemption — not a temporary pandemic workaround, but a real rule that companies and charities can rely on.
3. Countries that already have working solutions (like France) should become the model for the rest of Europe, not the exception.
This is fixable. Right now.
New EU rules on sustainability reporting, supply chain responsibility, and product destruction are all pushing in the same direction. The legal groundwork exists. The NGOs are ready. The companies want to give.
All that's missing is a tax law that stops punishing them for it.
Sign this petition and tell the European Commission and your government: fix the law. Let companies donate.
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Petition am 17. Juni 2026 erstellt