Singapore’s Food Bank Auctions NFTs to Raise Donations but Uncovers Tax Issue

As NFT developers are seeking new ways to make their projects relevant by exploring utility, the Food Bank Singapore (FBSG) has presented an inspiring way of putting NFTs to good use.

As a method of raising donations, the charity turned its mascot KooriMo into three art NFTs to be minted for auction.

The auction began on 21 April and runs until Sunday on OpenSea. Artwork comes from multimedia design studio Smobler Studios, which is planning to build a KooriLand metaverse with the charity to raise further funds.

FBSG is aiming to raise S$12 million (US$8.73 million) this year for its Bank Card Programme to mark the charity’s 10th anniversary. Funds will go to providing 10,0000 beneficiaries with stored value cards used to redeem free meals for a year.

Each card is topped up S$100 each month and can be used at vending machines and 150 outlets across Singapore. FBSG is targeting to include 1,000 outlets by year-end.

FBSG works with a network of more than 300 organisations and has provided fresh and cooked food to more than 100,000 families and over 300,000 people since it started in 2012.

Crypto donations

Local crypto exchange Coinhako has been working with FBSG to build a secure platform for the charity to accept cryptocurrency donations in Ether and Bitcoin.

However, whilst the initiative is certainly inspiring, it sheds a light on tax-deductibility for NFT and crypto donations.

According to its website, all donations made to FBSG are entitled to 2.5 times tax deductions in Singapore. But, according FBSG co-founder Nichol Ng, crypto donations are not tax deductible “due to challenges converting from cryptocurrency to dollars,” as reported by The Straits Times.

It’s unclear as to why there is such an issue in converting crypto to dollars but it could stem from declaring the exact dollar value of crypto donated, and whether its value is based on the time of donation or otherwise.

Whilst encouraging citizens to donate through crypto and NFTs is an all-inclusive measure for fiat wallet holders and crypto waller holders, the inability to set the donations against tax deductions is counterintuitive.