Registration of an international charitable organization

An international charitable organization officially had the status of an international charitable organization only under the Law of Ukraine "On Charity and Charitable Organizations" dated 16.09.1997 No. 531/97-VR, which expired on 03.02.2013 due to the adoption of a new law on charity - the Law of Ukraine "On Charitable Activities and Charitable Organizations" dated 05.07.2012 No. 5073-VI. Previously, charitable organizations whose activities extended to the territory of Ukraine and at least one other state were considered international, but now geographical and territorial restrictions on the activities of charitable organizations have been lifted. Even the state registration of charitable organizations, depending on their status, was carried out by the Ministry of Justice, for all-Ukrainian and international organizations, and by its local bodies for lower ranking ones.

The new Law introduced the transfer of powers to register both business entities and charitable organizations to the state registrar (according to the Law of Ukraine "On State Registration of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs" of 15.05.2003 No. 755-IV), and abolished the division of charitable organizations based on the territory of their activities. This factor used to determine not only the registration authority but also the list of documents required for registration - in addition to the basic package of documents (charter, protocol, application, etc.), it was necessary to provide information on the organization's activities outside Ukraine. Currently, the registration of an international charitable organization is no different from that of all other charitable organizations.

Regarding the refusal of the Department of Justice to register an international charity due to the lack of a sufficient number of branches and the alleged "urgent social purpose" of the Civic Committee for the Preservation of Wild (Indigenous) Nature of Bereznyaki, the ECHR issued a judgment in the case of Koretsky and Others v. Ukraine, no. 40269/02 of 03.04.2008, which confirmed a violation of Article 11 of the ECHR, which provides for freedom of peaceful assembly and the establishment of and accession to associations.

International philanthropy is actively developing all over the world. The three largest and most famous charitable foundations are the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, founded in 2000 to fight serious diseases, help the poor, support education and healthcare, which annually donates at least 1. 65 billion dollars; the British charitable foundation Wellcome Trust, founded in 1936 in London in honor of the memory of pharmaceutical magnate Henry Welcome, which is engaged in financing scientific and medical research, protecting human and animal life, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, founded by pilot, filmmaker and entertainment magnate Howard Hughes in 1953, who funded many studies in genetics, immunology and molecular biology.

In Western countries, the state actively supports the development of charity by creating favorable conditions for it. In the United States, charitable deductions can be up to 10% of a company's income; tax deductions for cash donations are up to 50% of annual income, and for in-kind donations - 20-30%. In Hungary, 70% of the company's profit is allowed to be deducted for charitable giving, while in Germany it is 33.2%. In Ukraine, the only way to encourage charitable giving is to provide tax benefits to an organization by obtaining a non-profit status from the State Tax Service.

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