Associations have different ways of obtaining the funds necessary for their functioning and for the conduct of their business.

The most common is undoubtedly the request for a registration fee to the various members (membership fee), necessary to be part of it and have the right to vote in the assemblies; to these will be added the membership fees of the members to the various activities of the Association. Read our post How should the piece of proof be made to a member for the payment of the social fee or an activity?

These funds will be integrated through:

any c ontributions straordinar the required members in order to cover increased costs or losses that may arise from the development of institutional activities;

liberal disbursements , whether made by members or by third parties (natural persons, companies, entities), to support the institutional purposes of the association; read our post The Liberal Payments to entities and associations: how they work

inheritance and testamentary bequests ;

contributions from institutions (municipalities, provinces, regions, public bodies, etc.); read our post Associations and courses for schools. Are they exempt from VAT?

fundraisers , to be organized solely and exclusively to raise money to finance the Association’s activities. The funds thus collected, in addition to being excluded from the VAT regime, do not contribute to the formation of income and are exempt from any other tax (e.g. entertainment tax). These tax concessions, however, are recognized only if the fundraisers are public , carried out occasionally and concomitant with celebrations, anniversaries or awareness campaigns.

The reference legislation (art. 2, Legislative Decree 460/1997) does not specify, however, when public collections can be considered “occasional” and therefore benefit from the aforementioned tax breaks. To protect yourself from any tax disputes, it is good to respect the conditions set out in art. 25, paragraph 2, of Law 133/1999 (article containing tax provisions relating to ASDs in the 398/1991 regime): the number of events during the tax period must not exceed 2 and the amount of funds raised in the tax period must not exceed the maximum limit of 51,645.69 euros . It is believed that the occasion remains even if the event repeats all the years and even if it lasts several consecutive days.

For public fundraising, pursuant to Article 8 of Legislative Decree 460/1997, it is also mandatory to draw up (regardless of the drafting of the REFA), within four months of the end of the financial year, a specific and separate report from the which must be clearly and transparently, also by means of an illustrative report, the income and expenses relating to each of the celebrations, anniversaries or awareness campaigns.