SMS will help trouble.
Why SMS charity is ineffective in Ukraine. We talked about this with Larisa Zhigun, coordinator of advocacy campaigns of the Ukrainian Forum of Philanthropists.
- Is it possible in Ukraine to donate funds to charity via SMS?
- Theoretically - there is, but in practice - no. From the point of view of the legislation - it is very unprofitable. The law does not provide that you can send a message to donate funds to charity. Therefore, all text messages, regardless of the purpose of sending, are taxed according to the general rule - 45% of taxes. Although the future is behind SMS charity.
An analysis of the tax systems for charitable text messages in various countries in Europe and the world shows that in the vast majority of countries these services are exempt from taxation. In particular, no tax is levied on the transfer of charitable messages in the United States, Canada, Australia and European countries - the Czech Republic, France, Bulgaria, Britain, Italy and others. As a result, 100% of the amount of donations collected is transferred to the beneficiaries.
With the help of SMS donations, uniting millions of people, you can solve many serious problems. Judge for yourself, Ukraine is a multi-million country, and if, for example, a million people send a charity SMS worth UAH 5. - this is UAH 5 million, which will allow, say, to buy expensive medical equipment in several hospitals and, thus, save lives.
- What prevents the development of this type of assistance?
- The only reason is taxation. 45% of each hryvnia donated to charity are taxes. Of these, 20% - VAT, 7.5% - a fee to the Pension Fund, 18% - income tax. Under such conditions, charities cannot raise money via SMS.
After all, SMS-donation is a purposeful help. According to the law on charitable activities, if the aid is targeted, then all 100% of donations must be transferred, for example, for the treatment of a sick child, and today almost half of the funds raised must be transferred to the state budget. Is this a targeted charity? This is a mass deception of people.
- How much of the listed money can really reach the addressee, assuming that neither the operator nor the provider takes anything or almost anything for their services?
- Mobile operators are ready to administer SMS donations free of charge. For example, if today a person transferred 5 hryvnias to charity, then after paying all taxes and collecting in the Pension Fund, the beneficiary’s account will receive 3 hryvnias and 22 kopecks. If we manage to exempt SMS donations from the above taxes, then we can talk about the transfer of the entire amount of 5 hryvnia to charity.
- What are the problems besides taxes?
- After the launch of the SMS-charity without taxes, there may be a problem with widely informing citizens about short SMS-numbers.
Charitable short issues will need to be advertised, and an important condition for this type of charity to be successful is the support of the media, especially TV channels. It is important that all parties to the process are open and willing to cooperate.
- In our country there have been attempts to turn to mobile charity. What are the results? What are the consequences? What did it affect?
- Now the state exempts SMS numbers from taxation manually, by letters of the central executive bodies, in particular the Pension Fund and the Fiscal Service.
In the summer of 2008, on behalf of the Cabinet of Ministers, all three mobile operators had a common experience of collecting charitable donations through calls and SMS messages during the floods in western Ukraine. For several weeks, residents of Ukraine sent their text messages to a short number. For example, Kyivstar subscribers collected about UAH 2 million in three weeks. By August 19, the company had received 106,655 SMS and 84,410 calls. All collected money was transferred to a special account of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy.
Money for the "Hospital of the Future" was also collected in a similar way. In the case of the hospital, as this was also an order of the Cabinet, only VAT was not withheld, all other taxes were paid by the operators. And in the case of the flood in Western Ukraine, the operators paid VAT and PF with their own money, which caused losses, so today they refuse to accept donations via SMS number.
- How can charities and public organizations help or influence the solution of this problem now?
- At the end of March, with the support of people’s deputies, two bills were registered - № 2297-1 and № 2440, which provide for the introduction of SMS-charity in Ukraine. In order to pass these laws, it is necessary to show the parliamentary corps the importance of developing the charity of these bills and to act as a united front in support of the entire sector.
The website of the Ukrainian Forum of Philanthropists has an information material "4 steps to SMS-charity - make them!", In which we explain in detail how charities can help pass bills. This is to send letters of support to MPs on behalf of the organization (samples of letters are posted on the website), letters to Verkhovna Rada committees asking to support these bills, please publish relevant information on their websites, social networks, partner sites and tell how organizations SMS charity will help and how much more they can help.
There was even a post on the social network Facebook about supporting bills with such a call “Friends, I am announcing the action“ I know a deputy? Talk to him about charity text messages! ” This is a good idea and you need to think about promoting it.
- With the positive results of the introduction of mobile charity in Ukraine, will it not become an uncontrolled means of assistance? Who will control this service?
- Bills stipulate that a charity uses funds raised through charity messages and calls exclusively for charity. The use of such funds to finance the administrative expenses of a charity is prohibited.
The telecommunications operator has the right to control the targeted use of such funds by the charity. An essential condition of the agreement between the operator and the charity is the obligation of the charity to publish on its official website reports and copies of documents confirming the intended use of the collected SMS-donations.
- How affordable will it be to get charity numbers for organizations?
- We will ensure that the bylaws provide for the allocation of short numbers for the purpose of raising charitable funds free of charge.
But it is important to note that today in Ukraine there are more than 10 thousand. charitable foundations, and you need to be realistic, the number resource of short numbers at all may simply be physically lacking. And here the question of administration of SMS-charity arises. For example, the creation of a single Platform, which will cooperate with all interested and, importantly (!) Transparent and accountable funds, and to ensure equal and fair distribution of numbers among the funds, as well as to monitor the targeted use of collected donations. Otherwise, sorry, chaos will begin.