Revenue issues charity giving regulations
Two sets of regulations finalised yesterday complete the framework for the package of measures announced in the Budget to encourage greater giving to charity.
The regulations specify the details people need to give to a charity when they make a donation under Gift Aid. They also deal with the arrangements for paying the government’s ten per cent supplement on employees’ Payroll Giving donations.
From 21 August 2000, donors must declare their name and address, including postcode, the name of the charity and a description of the gift if they want their gift to be within the Gift Aid scheme. Many charities are expected to provide a declaration form with pre-printed details for donors to complete.
A new regulation also provides that a supplement, claimed from the Inland Revenue on behalf of charities, should also be paid, along with the donations to employees’ chosen charities, within 60 days.
The regulations are part of chancellor Gordon Brown’s ‘Getting Britain Giving’ scheme announced earlier this year.
In the autumn, the government plans to launch a major campaign to publicise the Payroll Giving scheme in an attempt to increase take-up. Direct marketing agency, Cramm Francis Woolf, has been appointed to try and double donations through the pay packet over three years and to increase the number of employees with access to a Payroll Giving scheme, to one in three employees.