11.7.1 Recommendations for the anbi regulation

Since the difference in tax treatment mainly concern the legal form of a church society, to which the (tax) legislator grants additional incentives, the recommendations for the anbi regulation are primarily focused on the legal form. In view of the juxtaposition of religion and philosophy of life in Article 6 of the Dutch Constitution and Article 9 of the ECHR, and the current ideological pluralism in Dutch society, I argue for a legal form that offers rsl communities an equal measure of freedom of organisation and protection. In fact, my recommendation is that the legislator should open the already existing legal form of a church society to all rslis. An inclusive name for this legal form would be religious, spiritual and philosophical institute, in Dutch abbreviated as rsli. An alternative would be spiritual society or spiritual institute.

However, a change of civil law would take a long time and a change of tax regulations for anbis can be implemented more quickly. Therefore, to remove the unjustified unequal treatment several recommendations for tax legislation and jurisprudence in the area of the anbi regulation are included. First, using more inclusive terms, such as religious institutions instead of the term church. Second, extension of the limited obligation to publish financial data to all rslis or abolition of the exception for church societies. Third, actively informing non-traditional rslis about covenants and group qualifications. Lastly, extending privacy protection to directors of all anbis that operate in areas from which special personal data of their directors can be derived that are protected by the privacy principle.

Some authors argue that traditional Jewish and Christian church societies on the one hand and other rslis on the other hand are not equal because church societies have a long history of philanthropy in Dutch society and the special legal position of church societies has a historic background. Given the pluriformity of Dutch society and the findings in chapter 3, it is possible that other rslis play a similar role in today's society. A comparative sociological study into this could shed more light on the matter. If this study would show that church societies and other rslis fulfil a similar role, this argues for abolishing the differences in tax treatment between church societies and other rslis.