Treasury rebuffs Tory charity proposals

Treasury rebuffs Tory charity proposals

The Treasury has rejected a series of Tory attempts to widen chancellor Gordon Brown's proposals to widen tax concessions for charitable giving.

Proposals pressed by Treasury spokesman Howard Flight included lifting the £250 ceiling on the aggregate value of benefits a charity could make available to gift aid donors and allowing notional tax to be added to gifts from non-taxpayers.

He also wanted companies’ dividends on shares held by charities to count as donations, enabling donors to gift shares while reserving the income from them for their lifetime and that of their spouses and extending the range of qualifying shares to private companies.

Economic secretary Melanie Johnson said the government’s concessions already go further than they proposed in last year’s Gift Aid consultation document and had been ‘warmly received’ by charities like Oxfam as a means of increasing donations.

But she insisted most people give out of a desire to support a worthy cause – not for what they can get – and insisted the link with the tax paid by the donor be kept. She warned that abolishing the £250 limit imposed by the last Conservative government on allowable benefits could open the door to avoidance – such as a means to pay school fees.

Johnson said dividends to charities could not qualify because they were not gifts. She said the scheme was designed to allow a tax deduction forthe full market value on shares or securities on they day beneficial ownership was transferred, and charities would not be able to use gifts for charitable purposes if they could not readily realise the value of unquoted shares or those placed in a remainder trust.

Flight warned that the ‘ridiculously low’ ceiling on benefits in return would hit gifts from companies making use of membership sponsor schemes enabling donors to take guests to concerts and the like.

He claimed charities had been mislead into believing members of schemes could receive up to 25% of the value of covenanted donations in return and damage events like the Three Choirs Festival and musical charities in particular.

Payroll giving scheme changes allow donations to reach charities sooner

Share

Subscribe to get your daily business insights

Resources & Whitepapers

Why Professional Services Firms Should Ditch Folders and Embrace Metadata
Professional Services

Why Professional Services Firms Should Ditch Folders and Embrace Metadata

3y

Why Professional Services Firms Should Ditch Folde...

In the past decade, the professional services industry has transformed significantly. Digital disruptions, increased competition, and changing market ...

View resource
2 Vital keys to Remaining Competitive for Professional Services Firms

2 Vital keys to Remaining Competitive for Professional Services Firms

3y

2 Vital keys to Remaining Competitive for Professi...

In recent months, professional services firms are facing more pressure than ever to deliver value to clients. Often, clients look at the firms own inf...

View resource
Turn Accounts Payable into a value-engine
Accounting Firms

Turn Accounts Payable into a value-engine

3y

Turn Accounts Payable into a value-engine

In a world of instant results and automated workloads, the potential for AP to drive insights and transform results is enormous. But, if you’re still ...

View resource
Digital Links: A guide to MTD in 2021
Making Tax Digital

Digital Links: A guide to MTD in 2021

3y

Digital Links: A guide to MTD in 2021

The first phase of Making Tax Digital (MTD) saw the requirement for the digital submission of the VAT Return using compliant software. That’s now behi...

View resource