Somr things do work as an abattement ie a rebate on tax paid. Which is how charity donations work I think. So for those, no tax paid means nothing to receive a rebate against for the donation.
Other things - like, I believe, the home help allowance - and some recent aides like eco energy things (eg eco boilers) will receive money reimbursed from the Impôts regardless of income. I guess it’s done by Impôts because until your tax has been calculated by them for the year they don’t know if you are above a ceiling RFR that wouldn’t be eligible to receive that money (all or part or none) paid back.
Sorry to hear about your wife and I can kind of understand your feeling that a little back from your donation might have helped you feel better - a kind of acknowledgement that it was for her.
My veiw was if a donation helped someone else through research then it was worth every centime. My wife had a catastrophic stroke and died 6 weeks later.
When OH died of an AVC in 2011, we asked for donations and not flowers etc and a box was set up by the local PF who did the funeral for folks to put their donations in. We then sent it all to the research hospital in one cheque as the cheques in the box were made out to me personally. Much better than flowers that last a day or two and there was no grave either.
Hello Shiba, my condolences. I didn’t think of that at the time. There were no flowers, all the family are in the UK and arrangements were made very quickly.
Thanks for your reply Stella. My post was to make people in my position aware..
On the donation web site there was no info re only if you pay tax. Yes, it makes sense.
There is a ceiling on how much one can donate (and claim) in total each year (2000 euro I think) and then one only gets money back if one pays that sum (or more) in taxes.
There are/were other schemes. Years ago, after we bought our wood burner, the Installer told me to claim, with the Bill on my Declaration… so I did so…
I was astonished to get a cheque and simply tore it up as we hadn’t paid any tax into the system and it felt like fraud.
I’ve since discovered that the Gov does give money back to non-tax folk in certain situations, so might not tear up another cheque.
We make charitable donations , with income below the tax threshold. We wouldn’t want any tax refund - we would prefer, like the UK system , where the charity would be able to claim it.
This is more up to date… but all along, it talks about “reducing one’s tax” so it’s clearly not a way of gaining funds back into one’s account if one does not pay tax.. !!!
Ce qui change en 2026
À partir du 1er janvier 2026, la réglementation évolue :
les dons effectués depuis le 1er janvier 2026 au profit de fondations reconnues d’utilité publique qui agissent pour la conservation du patrimoine ouvrent droit à une réduction d’impôt sur le revenu égale à 66 % du montant versé, dans la limite de 20 % du revenu imposable.
pour les dons effectués entre le 1er janvier 2026 et le 31 décembre 2026en vue de la restauration du château de Chambord (auprès de l’établissement public du domaine national de Chambord, du Trésor public, du Centre des monuments nationaux ou des fondations reconnues d’utilité publique dénommées « Fondation de France » et « Fondation du patrimoine ») le taux de la réduction d’impôt est porté à 75 %, dans la limite de 1 000 €.
of course there can’t be a “tax refund” if you don’t pay tax… so the charity won’t be able to “claim it”.
If you are saying the UK Govt gives money to Charity on behalf of a non-tax-payer… that is different and quite interesting.
(having checked… UK govt only give to giftaid if the donor pays tax)
Thank you, a while ago now but you never get over it. I hate cut flowers to be honest, won’t have people waste their money on them for me as I prefer to see them growing and living longer, so many bouquets over the years never lasted more than a couple of days indoors. Yes five days usually to get the “business” done with extra during bank holidays as it was for us..
Originally there were comments from a couple of posts that I made a donation knowing the sum would be reduced by a tax credit. No, I didn’t. I’ve since made a further donation.
Any cheques from the Gouv are a bonus. Don’t tear them up !
