Legal
HOW DOES TREE PLAN WORK?
The idea of planting one tree for every consumer purchase sparks the imagination! It’s a beautiful dream, but the reality is much harder to achieve. Non-profits could be created to receive donations and plant trees, but donors would not be able to deduct 100% of their support from their taxes. There are exceptions in which donations can receive a 50% deduction, but never 100%. Also, a non-profit arrangement cannot achieve the scale of re-forestation that Tree Plan aims to create.
Many people show interest and are willing to support the cause of increased tree planting, but not to the point where it hurts them financially. We set out to create a system in which partnering businesses can support Tree Plan and then deduct 100% of their support from the company’s taxable income.
To realize this goal, we’ve structured Tree Plan as a for-profit company and invoiced our partnering businesses for their use of Tree Plan as a marketing project. This solved the issue for the Tree Plan clients.
Tree Plan on the other hand receives revenue with which they pay for the planting of trees. But as this cost is not deductible for Tree Plan it creates a situation with lots of revenue and no taxable cost. Resulting in an unrealistic high taxable profit. On which Tree Plan needs to pay taxes.
We wanted to keep things both cost-effective and transparent. Our partnering businesses pay as little as 1 euro for each tree that's being planted. Tree Plan pays on average even less per tree. This leaves us with the financial space that we need to pay our taxes and plant the exact amount of trees that our sponsor companies have sponsored. It allows every consumer to have the confidence that when they buy a product that has partnered with Tree Plan, the promised trees will be planted. Tree Plan can plant trees, run the business, and pay taxes, all while keeping things open and clear throughout the entire process.
Together, we can reduce the de-forestation of our beautiful world, and plant lush new forests that will thrive and cleanse our environment for years to come.