Revenue recently updated the tax and duty manual on the VAT treatment of charitable donations via SMS, to reflect the rules on multipurpose vouchers.

The VAT treatment of charitable donations made via SMS depends on whether the telecommunications provider charges a fee for facilitating the transaction.

Where the telecommunications provider charges a fee to facilitate the donation, the fee is liable to VAT at the standard rate and monies transferred to the charity net of the fee are outside the scope of VAT. Further details on the VAT treatment of such donations and the conditions to be met by the charitable organisation to receive the full amount of the donation without a VAT deduction are included in section 3 of the Revenue manual for the VAT treatment of charitable donations via SMS.

The manual has also been updated to improve readability.