The Routledge Handbook of Taxation and Philanthropy edited by Henry Peter and Giedre Lideikyte Huber (2021).
Taxation of philanthropy is a heterogeneous topic that extends to multiple scientific disciplines. For academics and practitioners working in philanthropy, it is not uncommon to turn to branches such as philosophy, law, sociology, and economics to obtain thorough answers to the questions they encounter in their research and work. To date, however, there has been no comprehensive multidisciplinary analysis of the interaction between taxation and philanthropy. The present volume seeks to fill this gap. Through this handbook, the editors also endeavored to contribute to the emerging multidisciplinary domain that can be referred to as “the science of philanthropy.” It is hoped that the readers will find the contributions in this volume not only useful but also thought provoking and that they will be encouraged to pursue such studies further. Due to the diversity of the questions and scientific fields involved, we, the editors, have decided to structure the present handbook around four topics. The first part consolidates contributions to the justification of tax incentives for philanthropic initiatives. The second part ventures into the economic and technical aspects of tax incentives for philanthropy, exploring and comparing various models and their respective efficiencies. The third part addresses tax issues arising from cross-border philanthropy. Finally, the last part of the handbook explores the phenomena of corporate philanthropy and social entrepreneurship, inquiring into, among other things, the rationale of the traditional distinction between charity and business, which is now often blurred. Annexed to this handbook is the OECD report “Taxation and Philanthropy,” which was published in November 2020 in the context of the research project that led to this book (hereafter the “OECD report”). It is the first in-depth comparative analysis of the legal norms and practices in the field. Based on the data gathered through country questionnaires by the OECD, it provides a detailed review of the tax treatment of philanthropic entities and philanthropy as applied by 40 OECD members and participating countries. It was carried out as part of a collaboration between the OECD and the Geneva Centre for Philanthropy at the University of Geneva. In this introduction, the contributions of all four sections of this handbook are briefly presented.
