Charity to quake areas to see tax deduction

The officials said that people can make cash donations to the disaster areas in Sichuan Province through those charity groups or institutions approved by the Cabinet-level Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), including the ROC Red Cross Society, Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation, and World Vision. As long as the cash donations are under 20 percent of personal consolidated annual income, the donations can be deducted from taxable income in 2009.

If people channel their cash donations through the government, such as the Sichuan Relief Fund Account launched by the Cabinet, then all their donations can be deducted from taxable income no matter how much they donate.

But local educational, cultural, charity and public welfare groups should get prior approval from the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) before they donate relief funds to disastrous areas.

In related news, among the top-10 foreign enterprises donating relief funds to the quake-hitting areas in Sichuan, five are Taiwanese business conglomerates, according to statistics released by China’s Ministry of Commerce.

Of the five, Formosa Plastics Group took the lead with NT$440 million; Evergreen Group came third with NT$308 million; Hon Hai Group took fourth place with NT$264 million; RT-Mart ranked fifth with NT$242 million, and Linyuan Group (Cathay Life Insurance) ranked sixth with NT$220 million, all higher than an equivalent of NT$132 million donated by Li Ka-shing, the richest man in Hong Kong and Asia.

Such other Taiwanese enterprises as Pou Chen Corp., Yeh United Steel and Chi Mei Group also donated NT$80 million each, while China Steel Corp., Taiwan’s largest steel maker, promised to donate NT$440 million in relief funds.

By contrast, Samsung Group of South Korea donated an equivalent of NT$132 million, followed by Coca Cola, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Nokia and LG with NT$74 million each, and McDonald’s with NT$56.4 million, among others.

The same tallies showed that as of May 23, total cash donations and relief materials donated by multinational enterprises and those in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao amounted to an equivalent of NT$2.424 billion, including NT$2.016 billion in cash and NT$408 million worth of foodstuffs, medicines, communication devices, illumination equipment and digging facilities.

The death toll from the 8-magnitude earthquake that hit Sichuan Province exceeded 60,000 as of yesterday, and tens of thousands more are missing.

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