Church Collections

marty1985

Just a quick question.

My local Catholic church distribute two boxes of envelopes every year to be used for the money collections every Sunday during mass. The boxes are delivered to our door.
The boxes are named and numbered, and the envelopes are numbered. Does this practice exist so that they can keep track of who donates what?
I've attended churches in other countries and never seen this practice. Is it an Irish thing, or just my parish? Can anyone shed some light on this for me?

philologos

This is commonplace. In CofI, and I'm fairly sure I've seen it in the UK also. I'm fairly sure the point is that when you use envelopes they are tax deductible. For example when you donate over a certain amount to charity in some cases they can get a % more than what you donate by claiming a portion of the tax you would normally pay back from the Government.

More info here.

Fanny Cradock

Perhaps it is for such purposes. In principle it would be no different from any other charity or business logging your details if you donate by direct debit or whatever. The reasons why they do this, as JA has pointed out, is obvious.

I would imagine that asking someone in your local church would be the best way of getting an answer.

marty1985

Thanks guys. It was just a thought I had, seems reasonable now.

*throws scarf over shoulder* and that's the end of that chapter.

georgieporgy

yes it's for tax receipt reasons. same thing in north america. plus- people often pay their school fees in this manner (for their kids in local paochial school)