Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 section 486A

Corporate donations to eligible charities

Section 486A provided corporation tax relief to companies that made cash donations to authorised Irish charities, subject to monetary limits and detailed qualifying conditions, before being repealed and replaced by section 848A with effect from 6 April 2001.

• "Eligible charity" status was granted by Revenue authorisation, available only to bodies in the State established for charitable purposes that had already held a section 207 tax exemption for at least 3 years; an authorisation lasted up to 5 years and could be withdrawn if conditions were no longer met.
• A qualifying donation had to be a cash payment made by a company on or after 6 April 1998, with no repayment condition, no benefit flowing back to the donor or any connected person, and not otherwise deductible for corporation tax purposes.
• Relief was given by treating the donation as either a deductible trading expense or an expense of management in computing the company's total profits for the accounting period in which it was paid, claimed on the section 951 return.
• Per charity, donations had to exceed £250 in aggregate and were capped at £10,000; across all charities, total qualifying donations were capped at the lesser of £50,000 or 10 per cent of the company's pre-relief profits, with these limits reduced proportionately for accounting periods shorter than 12 months.