News from 2013 Budget statement

The Budget statement announced on Wednesday 20 March 2013 included that from April 2014, every UK business and charity will be entitled to a £2,000 Employment Allowance towards their bill for National Insurance contributions

The move is estimated to save the charity sector around £45million a year collectively, according to HM Treasury predictions.

The Budget report states that up to 1.25million employers will benefit, with over 90 per cent of the benefit going to small businesses.

The Employment Allowance will be delivered through standard payroll software and HMRC’s Real Time Information system. To enrol, employers will only need to confirm their eligibility through their regular payroll processes.

The Budget report also stated that the government would consult on proposals to make it easier to claim gift aid through a wide range of digital giving channels, including options for enabling donors to complete a single gift aid declaration to cover all their donations though a specific channel.

Currently, donors must make an individual gift aid declaration each time they give online, in order for a charity to receive gift aid on their donation. Under the consultation proposal, online giving platforms such as JustGiving, BT MyDonate and Virgin Money Giving, would be able to collect just one single declaration for all a donor’s future gifts through that website.

In addition, the Budget statement announced that the government will consult on introducing a new tax relief to encourage private investment in social enterprise by this summer, with a promise to introduce the relief in the Finance Bill 2014, including a pledge

Documents released as part of the Budget package have stated that the government also intends to publish a single document of fresh guidance for volunteers who wanted to run events, because previous documentation was confusing.

The Chancellor, George Osborne also announced that government would meet a long-standing commitment to the world’s poorest to spend 0.7 per cent of our national income on international development. The international development budget is £8.8billion in 2012/13 and is expected to rise to about £11billion next year to meet the commitment.

The government also confirmed that it would carry out a consultation on the eligibility conditions for community amateur sports clubs, as announced earlier in March.