Archive for March 21st, 2012
Charities’ Budget shock
UK charities have been expressing concern, following today’s Budget in which the Chancellor George Osborne announced that from April 2013 higher-rate taxpayers will be limited to a maximum tax-relief ceiling of £50,000 on charitable donations. This is in stark contrast to last year’s Budget, when he gave charities a much-needed boost by promising gift-aid tax reforms to reduce bureaucracy and encourage charitable giving.
At a time when charitable donations are down by 2%, due to tough economic times, the Government is being urged to do all it can to make it easy for people to donate, and it is feared that the contributions of wealthy philanthropists who (rightly or wrongly) view tax-relief as an incentive to donate large sums will now be significantly reduced, having serious implications for many of the UK’s larger charities.
The Charities Aid Foundation is understood to have requested urgent ‘damage-limitation’ discussions with the Treasury, following today’s announcement. Their CEO John Low has said that the announced cap on charitable giving tax-relief runs counter to the idea of the ‘Big Society’, which is the present Government’s flagship vision of “a society where individuals and communities have more power and responsibility, and use it to create better neighbourhoods and local services”.
