The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW, ‘the Academy’) has been designated a public benefit organisation (ANBI) by the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration. The precondition for ANBI status is that an organisation cannot allocate money to itself but must distribute it to causes that serve the public interest. The Tax and Customs Administration views the organisation itself, including the Academy institutes, as ‘own interest’ rather than the ‘public interest’.