Shall be exempted from taxes, especially from the fiscal stamp duty and customs fees, including the minimum customs, financial and port fees, and from the fee imposed by virtue of Article 59 of Law No. 144 dated 31/07/2019 (General Budget Law and annexed Budgets for 2019) as well as from the VAT (Value Added Tax), the donations and foreign aid provided to public administrations and institutions, municipalities, the federation of municipalities and other persons of public law, associations, organizations and religious communities, by external organizations, to overcome the damages resulting from the Beirut Port and thus, by virtue of a letter issued by the High Relief Commission.
The aforementioned exemption includes the following operations:
- Import transactions and operations related to these donations and aids;
- Money delivery operations and services related to the reconstruction of destroyed facilities and infrastructure of the Lebanese State as well as damaged and destroyed buildings of natural and legal persons;
- Money delivery operations and humanitarian services which are distributed free of charge;
- Money delivery operations and services for emergency purposes in order to overcome the damage and losses resulting from the explosion of the port of Beirut.
n order to benefit from such exemption, the organizations and parties granting these donations and aid must prove this aid by virtue of a letter issued by the High Relief Commission and thus, by virtue of a request submitted to the latter including the following information :
- Name of the sender, address, telephone number and email address;
- Name of the recipient, address, telephone number and email address;
- Description of the goods (quantity, nature, number, weight, value)/description of the services provided;
- Storage location with the complete address;
- Name of the entity or person responsible for the distribution of the aids/ the implementation of the services
In the event of misuse of these donations and aids, all fees and taxes will be due and the offending party will be subject to legal proceedings.
These operations carried out by persons subject to tax are exempted from the Value Added Tax (VAT) and these persons benefit from the provisions of article 28 of the Law No. 379/2001 (value added tax) and its modifications. In other words, when these people carry out money delivery operations and services for the benefit of administrations and public institutions, municipalities, federation of municipalities, associations, organizations and religious communities, a tax of 0% shall be due (in order to allow the deduction or the retrieve of the borne tax on purchases and charges), provided that the invoice or the similar document relating to these operations includes the information provided for in article 38 of the Law No. 379/2001 and its modifications as well as those mentioned in the Decree No. 1373/1 dated 31/2/2014 (taxpayers required to issue invoices and determine documents similar to invoices) in addition to other requested information (such as the number and date of the letter issued by the High Relief Commission certifying the acceptance of the donation…).
The declaration of donations and aid is carried out according to the implemented customs procedures in order to benefit from the said exemption.