In Britain, the public welfare purpose in the legal sense mainly includes the following four parts: first, the trust to help the poor; The second is to promote the trust of education; The third is to advocate religious trust; Fourth, other trusts that are beneficial to society but do not belong to the first three categories. For a long time, charitable trusts in Britain have always enjoyed important tax benefits: first, according to the income tax and corporate tax law of 1988, as long as the income of non-profit organizations is used for charitable purposes, it is usually exempt from personal income tax and corporate income tax. Second, the inheritance tax will be levied in half on the land completely occupied by non-profit organizations or mainly used for charitable purposes. Third, non-profit organizations can be exempted from value-added tax when selling goods donated by others. Fourth, anyone who transfers his property to a non-profit organization before or after his death shall be exempted from inheritance tax. Donations made by individuals to non-profit organizations that meet certain conditions can be deducted from tax revenue. Fifthly, according to 1992 Public Welfare Income Tax Law, charitable trusts are exempted from capital gains tax in principle. In addition, the transfer of real estate to non-profit organizations can also be exempted from stamp duty. In order to prevent the indiscriminate establishment of charitable trusts, Britain established the "Ministry of Public Welfare" according to the 1960 Public Welfare Law as the unified authority for charitable trusts. Except for public welfare undertakings exempted from registration according to law, the establishment, alteration and termination of public trust shall be registered with the public welfare department by the trustee. Once a charitable trust is registered, it is deemed to have public welfare and can enjoy legal and tax benefits accordingly. Anyone can ask the public welfare department in London and the public welfare department office in Liverpool to read the registered items of any charitable trust within a reasonable time.
Charitable trusts in the United States mainly exist in the form of foundations and can be organized in the form of simple trusts or companies. In concrete forms, there are mainly three types: first, public trust, that is, trust generated by managing and using the money donated by residents within a certain range for the benefit of people within that range. The second is the trust of institutions, that is, after schools, hospitals, charitable organizations and other institutions accept donations, they entrust funds to trust institutions for reasonable and effective management to improve the efficiency of fund use. Third, charitable residual trust, that is, charitable trust established by donors, allows donors to obtain a certain proportion of trust income to maintain their own and family life, and at the same time transfers all the rest to specific charities, including charitable residual annuity trust, charitable residual single trust and * * * same income fund. In the United States, according to the unified Law on the Supervision of Charitable Trustee, the supervision power of charitable trust is mainly exercised by the state attorney general. The trustee of a charitable trust shall apply to the state attorney general for registration within 6 months from the date of receiving the trust property, and attach a copy of the trust document.
There are two systems in Japan: public legal person and public trust. After the 1970s, the wealth of Japanese residents increased rapidly, and some people began to be dissatisfied with donating only to existing corporate bodies. In particular, some public welfare legal persons have been criticized for their high transaction costs, extensive economy and opaque information. In this context, Japan began to conduct in-depth research on charitable trust, and thought that although charitable trust is not suitable for public welfare activities such as schools, libraries and art galleries with certain equipment and specialized personnel, it is suitable for public welfare activities that provide bonuses and subsidies for various public welfare activities. Since then, Japan has published a unified licensing standard for charitable trusts, which makes the entrustment business of charitable trusts well-founded. 1998 During the 10 years after the implementation of the Law on the Promotion of Specific Non-profit Activities, charitable trusts aimed at social welfare and urban environmental protection in Japan gradually increased. In Japan, charitable trusts mainly have the following characteristics: first, their business is limited to helping donations, and trust banks are responsible for applying to government authorities for approval, and there is no legal person registration; Second, as a goodwill manager, the trust bank strictly and independently manages the trust property; The third is to protect the interests of unspecified majority beneficiaries by setting up trust managers; Fourth, the name of charitable trust can include the name of the property donation enterprise or individual to praise its goodwill; The fifth is to implement tax incentives for charitable trusts. There is no fixed scope and definition of the purpose of public welfare, because the concept of public welfare changes with the development of social economy, and it is difficult to determine a universally applicable objective standard. For example, in Britain, "helping poor unmarried children get married" was regarded as a charitable purpose in the early days, but at present, this charitable purpose has almost no practical significance. Accordingly, since the 1960s, the threat of environmental degradation to human beings has become increasingly obvious, and many countries regard environmental protection as a public welfare purpose. In order to adapt to the continuous development and progress of human society, common law countries mainly expand the scope of charitable purposes through court cases. On the basis of Article 60 of the Trust Law, China's public welfare institutions should also adopt a relaxed attitude towards the identification of public welfare purposes in line with the purpose of benefiting the development of social public welfare undertakings.