Legal framework to encourage charity

Legal framework to encourage charity

At the opening of the Philanthropy Festival in Belgrade, Brnabic recalled that charity is in the tradition of the Serbian people and gave examples of Mihajlo Pupin, Ilija Milosavljevic Kolarac and Djordje Weifert.

She also cited the example of company Tarket, the former Sintelon, which donated to Matica Srpska three works of art of special importance for the history and culture of Serbia, since they were exempted from payment of Value Added Tax (VAT) by the decision of the Serbian government.

This was of no importance to the government, because money from the funds of the Ministry of Culture went to the Ministry of Finance, but for the citizens of Serbia and the generations to come that is of incredible importance.

US Ambassador to Serbia Kyle Scott said that companies and citizens in the United States gave around $ 410 billion last year to charity, which is more than the GDP of countries such as Ireland, Denmark or Finland.

He said that $32 million were collected in Serbia in 2017 for charity, and if there were tax incentives, that amount would be even higher.

Director of the Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation Ana Kosel said that in 11 years of its existence, this foundation helped 700,000 people directly or indirectly and gathered around $20 million for all kinds of activities.

Brnabic and Scott, together with Director of the Petnica Research Stations Vigor Majic, delivered letters of thanks for 15 companies that supported the campaign in which a spectrometer was bought for Petnica.

As of this year, 9 October is celebrated as the National Day of Giving, under the auspices of Prime Minister Brnabic.