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Shake up of gift aid

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The FT reports that the current UK Culture Secretary (Lucy Frazer) is lobbying the Treasury to change the gift aid rules to encourage charitable giving in the UK.

According to the report, proposals could include streamlining the gift aid process, so that the tax is automatically added to the donation rather than organisations having to apply it manually. One option might be to create a new digital portal which would bring together the relevant details for the donor, recipient and payment method (those details would be registered in the system) thus allowing automation of the tax payments to the charity and presumably adjustment of the income tax thresholds for higher-rate taxpayer donors.

Research by think-tank Onward suggests that automation could boost donations by up to 18% (equivalent to £520m) although this would of course present an equivalent hit to Exchequer funds, says the report.

Adam Hawksbee, Deputy Director at Onward tweeted: ‘If Britain’s wealthiest gave at the same rate as Canada’s or New Zealand’s, we’d have £5 billion extra a year going to good causes.’

Issue: 1658
Categories: News
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