The first Charity Law has been officially passed, marking the beginning of an era of lawful philanthropy.

On March 9, 2016, the "Charity Law of the People's Republic of China (Draft)" was submitted for review at the Fourth Session of the Twelfth National People's Congress. On March 16, the "Charity Law of the People's Republic of China" was passed by the Fourth Session of the Twelfth National People's Congress and came into effect on September 1, 2016. As China's first "Charity Law," it underwent two reviews and multiple amendments, and has now been approved. The "Charity Law" will become the first foundational and comprehensive law regulating charity in our country, marking a milestone.

This "Charity Law" mainly includes 12 chapters covering general principles, charitable organizations, charitable fundraising, charitable donations, charitable trusts, charitable property, charitable services, information disclosure, promotion measures, supervision and management, legal responsibilities, and supplementary provisions, totaling 112 legal articles.

1. The legislative process of the "Charity Law" in our country.

Before understanding the main content of the Charity Law, let's take a look at the legislative process of this law. As a law that has been in the making for ten years, the legislative process of our "Charity Law" has been particularly slow. What stages did it go through? What obstacles did it encounter? Let's take a look below:

1. Legislative proposal stage. The work on charity legislation in our country began in 2005. The Ministry of Civil Affairs proposed drafting the Charity Law to the National People's Congress and the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council.

2. Inclusion in legislative planning. On August 22, 2007, a relevant person from the Ministry of Civil Affairs revealed at a State Council press conference that the Charity Law had been included in the legislative plan of the National People's Congress. After the relevant laws on charity were reviewed and approved by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, they would be submitted to the State Council for review and then submitted to the National People's Congress for approval. Subsequently, in 2008, the Charity Law was included in the first category of legislative planning by the Standing Committee of the Eleventh National People's Congress.

3. Initial formation of the draft Charity Law. On July 29, 2010, a relevant person from the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council stated that the draft Charity Law had taken initial shape, divided into 9 chapters, covering regulations on charitable organizations, trusts, and the management of foreign charitable organizations' activities in China. In 2013, charity legislation was again included in the first category of legislative planning by the Standing Committee of the Eleventh National People's Congress.

4. First submission for review by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. On October 30, 2015, the Charity Law (Draft) was submitted for review by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for the first time. The draft defined charitable activities using the concept of "big charity," clarifying that in addition to poverty alleviation and disaster relief, promoting education, science, culture, health, sports, environmental protection, and other activities that conform to social public interests are also considered charitable. At the same time, the draft also clearly stipulated the subjects of fundraising, the legality of online fundraising, and the prevention of fundraising fraud.

5. The second draft submitted for group review by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. On December 23, 2015, the eighteenth meeting of the Standing Committee of the Twelfth National People's Congress conducted a group review of the second draft of the Charity Law. Some committee members and representatives suggested adding regulations on information disclosure methods, imposing constraints on disclosure channels and times. In addition, some committee members proposed that there should be clear standards for the annual expenditure ratio and management costs of charitable activities.

6. Implementation approved by the Fourth Session of the Twelfth National People's Congress. On January 11, 2016, the second review draft of the Charity Law was publicly solicited for opinions after being revised and improved. On March 9, 2016, the "Charity Law (Draft)" was submitted for review at the Fourth Session of the Twelfth National People's Congress. On March 16, 2016, the "Charity Law of the People's Republic of China" was passed by the Fourth Session of the Twelfth National People's Congress and came into effect on September 1, 2016.

From the above summary of the ten-year legislative process of the "Charity Law," we should understand the difficulty of this law's establishment. As our country's charity sector is in its early development stage, it requires the government to increase support and guidance, charitable organizations to strengthen their own construction, the industry to establish self-discipline mechanisms, and the whole society to form a good atmosphere for supporting the healthy development of charity, which urgently needs legal protection. Now, the emergence of the "Charity Law" will open the era of doing good in accordance with the law in China.

2. Hot issues of concern regarding the "Charity Law".

Of course, regarding the birth of a new law, what more people want to know is how this new law will affect their own lives. So, let's talk about the provisions in the "Charity Law" that are related to you and me.

1. What is a charitable activity?

According to Article 3 of the "Charity Law," charitable activities refer to the following non-profit activities voluntarily carried out by natural persons, legal persons, or other organizations through the donation of property or the provision of voluntary services:

(1) Alleviating poverty and helping vulnerable groups such as the elderly, children, the sick, and the disabled;

(2) Assisting in the damage caused by natural disasters and other emergencies;

(3) Promoting the development of education, science, culture, health, sports, and other undertakings;

(4) Preventing and controlling pollution and other public hazards, protecting and improving the environment;

(5) Other activities that conform to social public interests.

2. What is a charitable organization? Must donations go through charitable organizations?

According to Articles 8 and 9 of the "Charity Law," a charitable organization is a non-profit organization that is registered in accordance with the law and aims to carry out charitable activities. Charitable organizations must meet the following conditions:

(1) Aimed at carrying out charitable activities;

(2) Not for profit;

(3) Have their own name and domicile;

(4) Have organizational bylaws;

(5) Have necessary property;

(6) Have qualified organizational structure and responsible persons;

(7) Other conditions stipulated by laws and administrative regulations.

According to Article 38 of the "Charity Law," donors can donate through charitable organizations or directly to beneficiaries.

Zhang Tiehan, a representative of the National People's Congress and vice president of the Liaoning Provincial Charity Federation: Because natural persons, legal persons, and other organizations donate property for charitable activities, they enjoy national tax benefits according to the law; at the same time, beneficiaries receiving charitable donations or services also enjoy tax benefits according to the law. Generally, large donations should be made through charitable organizations to enjoy national tax benefits. If donations are not made through charitable organizations, tax benefits cannot be enjoyed. Small donations can be made directly to beneficiaries without going through charitable organizations if the donor does not require tax benefits.

3. What is charitable fundraising? Who can initiate charitable fundraising?

According to Article 25 of the Charity Law, charitable fundraising refers to the activities of qualified charitable organizations raising property based on charitable purposes. Charitable fundraising includes public fundraising aimed at the general public and non-public fundraising aimed at specific individuals.

Individuals are not qualified to organize fundraising; those conducting charitable fundraising must be registered with the Ministry of Civil Affairs, such as charitable federations, the Red Cross, various foundations, and public welfare organizations.

Kang Ke, deputy head of the legislative group of the Secretariat of the Fourth Session of the 12th National People's Congress, believes that the original legislative intent of this law is that individuals cannot directly engage in fundraising. This is because individual fundraising lacks transparency, there are no constraints on how the property is used, and it is difficult to distinguish between the raised property and personal property, making supervision and management inconvenient.

4. What is charitable donation?

According to Articles 37 and 38 of the Charity Law, charitable donation refers to the activities of natural persons, legal persons, or other organizations voluntarily and gratuitously giving property based on charitable purposes.

Donors can donate through charitable organizations or directly to beneficiaries. The property donated by the donor should be legal property that they have the right to dispose of. Charitable donation property includes funds, physical goods, securities, equity, intellectual property income, and other tangible or intangible property.

5. Can individuals seek help from society?

According to Articles 31 and 36 of the Charity Law, organizations or individuals that do not have the qualification for public fundraising are not allowed to conduct public fundraising in a public manner, but they can cooperate with charitable organizations that have public fundraising qualifications to conduct public fundraising, with the raised funds managed by the qualified charitable organization. It is prohibited for any organization or individual to impersonate charity to defraud property.

Individual requests for help are not charitable fundraising. The difference between the two is that individual requests for help are aimed at solving personal problems within a limited scope, while charitable fundraising as defined in the draft charity law refers to the activities of charitable organizations raising property based on charitable purposes.

Being charitable and helping each other is a traditional virtue in our country. If the behavior of individuals seeking help from friends is also included in legal regulation, it would not only be unmanageable but also restrict private assistance and support. It is important to note that the authenticity of the request for help needs to be judged by citizens themselves.

In practice, there are often cases where those in need of assistance do not receive adequate help, or the raised charitable funds exceed the actual needs of the requester. The resulting "charity lawsuits" are not uncommon. According to the draft charity law, when facing citizens in need of help, the media can cooperate with charitable organizations that have public fundraising qualifications to manage the raised funds. Citizens in distress are best advised to seek help from charitable organizations.

On March 9, 2016, the charity law of the People's Republic of China (Draft) was submitted to the fourth session of the 12th National People's Congress for deliberation. On March 16, the charity law of the People's Republic of China was adopted at the fourth session of the 12th National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China and came into force on September 1, 2016. As China's first charity law, it has been reviewed twice and amended in many places. Now it has been finally adopted. The charity law will become the first basic and comprehensive law to regulate China's philanthropy, which is of milestone significance.

The charity law mainly includes 12 chapters of general provisions, charitable organizations, charitable fundraising, charitable donations, charitable trusts, charitable property, charitable services, information disclosure, promotion measures, supervision and management, legal responsibilities, and supplementary provisions, with a total of 112 legal provisions.

1. The legislative process of China's charity law

Before understanding the main contents of the charity law, we now know the legislative process of this law. As a law that has been brewing for ten years, the legislative process of China's charity law seems particularly slow. What stages have it gone through? What obstacles have been encountered? Let's take a look:

1. Legislative proposal stage. China's charity legislation began in 2005. The Ministry of Civil Affairs shall put forward legislative suggestions on drafting the charity law to the National People's Congress and the Legislative Office of the State Council.

2. Incorporated into legislative planning. On August 22, 2007, the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Civil Affairs disclosed at the press conference of the State Council that the charity law has been incorporated into the legislative plan of the National People's Congress. After being deliberated and adopted by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the relevant laws of the charity law will be submitted to the State Council for deliberation and submitted by the State Council to the National People's Congress for deliberation and adoption. Since then, in 2008, the charity law was included in the first category of projects in the legislative plan of the Standing Committee of the Eleventh National People's Congress.

3. The draft charity law has taken shape. On July 29, 2010, the person in charge of the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council said that the draft charity law has been preliminarily formed. The draft is divided into nine chapters, which provides for the management of charitable organizations, trusts, and overseas charitable organizations in China. In 2013, charity legislation was again included in the first category of the legislative planning of the Standing Committee of the Eleventh National People's Congress.

4. For the first time, it was submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for deliberation. On October 30, 2015, the charity law (Draft) was first submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for deliberation. The definition of charitable activities in the draft adopts the concept of "great charity", which makes it clear that in addition to poverty alleviation and disaster relief, the promotion of education, science, culture, health, sports, environmental protection, and "other activities in line with social and public interests" belong to charity. At the same time, the draft also clearly stipulates the subject of fundraising, whether online fundraising is legal, and the prevention of fundraising fraud.

5. The second draft was submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for group deliberation. On December 23, 2015, the 18th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 12th National People's Congress conducted group deliberation on the second review draft of the charity law. Some members and deputies to the National People's Congress proposed to add provisions on the way of information disclosure and make binding provisions on the channels and time of disclosure. In addition, some members of the Standing Committee proposed that there should be clear standards for the annual expenditure proportion and management cost of charitable activities.

6. Adopted and implemented at the fourth session of the 12th National People's Congress. On January 11, 2016, the revised draft of the second review of the charity law (Draft) was revised and improved to solicit opinions from the public. On March 9, 2016, the charity law (Draft) was submitted to the fourth session of the 12th National People's Congress for deliberation. On March 16, 2016, the charity law of the People's Republic of China was adopted at the fourth session of the 12th National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China and shall enter into force as of September 1, 2016.

Through the above summary of the ten-year legislative process of the charity law, we should understand that this law has not come easily. As China's philanthropy is in the primary development stage, the government needs to increase support and guidance, charitable organizations strengthen their own construction, the industry establishes a self-discipline mechanism, and the whole society forms a good atmosphere to support the healthy development of philanthropy, which is in urgent need of legal guarantee. Now, the publication of the charity law will open an era for China to do good according to law.

2. Hot issues of charity law

Of course, for the birth of a new law, what more people want to know most is what impact this new law will have on their own lives? Well, let's talk about the provisions related to you and me in the charity law.

1. What is charity?

According to Article 3 of the charity law, charitable activities refer to the following non-profit activities voluntarily carried out by natural persons, legal persons or other organizations by means of donating property or providing voluntary services:

(1) Helping the poor, the old, the young, the sick and the disabled and other disadvantaged groups;

(2) Rescue the damage caused by emergencies such as natural disasters;

(3) Promote the development of education, science, culture, health, sports and other undertakings;

(4) Prevent and control pollution and other public hazards, protect and improve the environment;

(5) Other activities in line with social and public interests.

2. What is a charity? Do donations have to go through charitable organizations?

According to the provisions of Articles 8 and 9 of the charity law, charitable organizations refer to non-profit organizations registered according to law with the purpose of carrying out charitable activities. A charitable organization shall meet the following conditions:

(1) The purpose is to carry out charitable activities;

(2) Not for profit;

(3) Having its own name and domicile;

(4) Having articles of Association;

(5) Necessary property;

(6) Having qualified organizations and principals;

(7) Other conditions stipulated by laws and administrative regulations.

According to Article 38 of the charity law, donors can donate through charitable organizations or directly to beneficiaries.

Zhang Tiehan, deputy to the National People's Congress and vice president of Liaoning Charity Federation: if natural persons, legal persons and other organizations donate property for charity activities, they shall enjoy the state tax preference according to law; At the same time, beneficiaries who accept charitable donations or charitable services also enjoy tax incentives according to law. Generally, large donations should be made through charitable organizations in order to enjoy the national preferential tax policies. If they are not donated through charitable organizations, they cannot enjoy the preferential tax policies. If the donor does not enjoy the requirements of preferential tax policies, he can donate directly to the beneficiary without going through a charitable organization.

3. What is charity fundraising? Who can raise money for charity?

According to Article 25 of the charity law, charitable donation refers to the activities of qualified charitable organizations to raise property based on the purpose of charity. Charitable fund-raising includes public fund-raising for the public and non-public fund-raising for specific objects.

Individuals are not qualified to organize fund-raising. Those who conduct charitable fund-raising must be registered with the Ministry of civil affairs, such as Charity Federation, Red Cross Society, various foundations, public welfare organizations, etc.

Kan Ke, deputy head of the bill group of the Secretariat of the fourth session of the 12th National People's Congress, believes that the original intention of this law is that individuals cannot directly engage in fund-raising. Because the personal fund-raising is not transparent and there is no restriction on how to use the property, it is difficult to distinguish the raised property from the personal property, which is not convenient for supervision and management.

4. What is charitable donation?

According to articles 37 and 38 of the charity law, charitable donation refers to the voluntary and gratuitous donation of property by natural persons, legal persons or other organizations for charitable purposes.

Donors can donate through charitable organizations or directly to beneficiaries. The property donated by the donor shall be the lawful property that he has the right to dispose of. Charitable donation property includes tangible or intangible property such as funds, in kind, marketable securities, equity, intellectual property income, etc.

5. Can individuals turn to society for help?

According to the provisions of Articles 31 and 36 of the charity law, organizations or individuals without public fund-raising qualification shall not carry out public fund-raising by means of public fund-raising, but may cooperate with charitable organizations with public fund-raising qualification to carry out public fund-raising, and the funds and materials raised shall be managed by charitable organizations with public fund-raising qualification. It is prohibited for any organization or individual to defraud property in the name of charity.

Personal help, not charity. The difference between the two is that individual help seeking is to solve personal problems in a limited scope, and charitable donation stipulated in the draft charity law refers to the activities of charitable organizations to raise property based on the purpose of charity.

Charity, mutual assistance and fraternity are China's traditional virtues. If the behavior of individuals asking for help from friends is also included in the legal regulation, it will not only have no supervision, but also restrict private help and assistance. It should be noted that the authenticity of help seeking needs citizens' own judgment.

In practice, it often happens that people in need of assistance do not get sufficient assistance, or the amount of money raised exceeds the actual needs of the helpers. The resulting "love lawsuit" is not rare. According to the draft charity law, in the face of citizens seeking help, the media can cooperate with charitable organizations qualified for public fund-raising, and the money and goods raised shall be managed by charitable organizations. Citizens in trouble had better turn to charitable organizations for help.