News

The Treasury and HM Revenue & Customs have issued new guidance explaining how a new cap on tax reliefs for charitable giving will work, which confirms the government's belief that donors should pay tax on large donations. The government announced in last month's Budget that, from April 2013, anyone donating more than £50,000 a year or a quarter of their income, whichever is higher, will not be able to reclaim all the tax they have paid on their donations. The new guidance confirms that any money claimed by the charity under Gift Aid will be considered part of the donation.

Volunteering England has published the results of its survey of 169 volunteer centres in England, which included that although 89 per cent of respondents received funding from local authorities in 2010/11, this had fallen by 12%, from an average of £32,000 in 2009/10 to £28,308 in 2010/11.

Other results from the annual survey, which Volunteer England jointly conducted with the Institute for Volunteer Research, are:

Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has opened a consultation on the proposed gift aid small donations scheme, which will allow charities to claim gift aid on £5,000 worth of small donations each year without needing to submit a gift aid declaration signed by the donor.

The measure was announced in last year's Budget, when the Chancellor stated that it would apply to donations of up to £10. This year's Budget confirmed that the move was still in the pipeline and doubled the limit for each individual donation to £20. The change is intended to take effect from 6 April 2013.

The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) and the Charities Aid Foundation have set up Give It Back, George, a website calling on the Chancellor, George Osborne, to abandon the proposed cap on tax reliefs. The site is designed to act as a focal point for lobbying the government over the measure, announced in this years' Budget. The cap will mean that the tax relief an individual can claim in any year will be limited to a quarter of their income or £50,000, whichever is higher, from April 2013.