11.6.4 Difference in tax treatment of religion, spirituality and philosophy of life in the anbi regulation and justification

In various areas, there is a difference in tax treatment on one or more of the three levels of the research question of this study. This difference is mainly focused on the legal form of a church society, to which the (tax) legislator grants additional incentives. The assessment framework used in this study showed that, with three exceptions, there is no objective and reasonable justification for this difference. These exceptions concerned: (1) the deferral of the obligation for church societies to publish financial data, (2) concluding a covenant with the tax administration and (3) the obligation to publish financial data.

The lack of an RSIN1 was an objective and reasonable justification for the deferral of the obligation for church societies to publish financial data, although I consider the two-year deferral period to have been too generous.

As far as concluding a covenant with the tax administration is concerned, there is a justification provided that all rslis have the same opportunities to conclude their own covenant with the tax administration under the same conditions.

There might be a possible justification for the difference in the obligation to publish financial data between rslis and other anbis. This is because a full obligation to publish financial data for church societies that wish to obtain an anbi status may interfere with their freedom of organisation, protected by these fundamental principles, as laid down in Article 2:2 of the Dutch Civil Code. On the other hand, a full disclosure obligation for rslis including church societies provides more information to the public, the aim of the disclosure requirement.