Autumn Statement - 06 December 13

The Chancellor said yesterday in presenting his Autumn Statement that he wished to put beyond doubt that entities established for the purposes of tax avoidance would not have any entitlement to charitable tax reliefs and that the measure would be introduced in the Finance Bill 2014. Whether the Chancellor intends to create a new definition of a charity, or simply explicitly reinforce existing legislation remains to be seen but until the draft bill is produced charities will have very little visibility of how the changes may affect them. We will maintain a watching brief as the legislation develops. A number of other announcements were made by the Chancellor which will affect charities. These include:

Social investment tax relief: it was confirmed that the proposed social investment tax relief will be available from April 2014 for qualifying investments into charities, community interest companies or community benefit societies. The relief will also be available on investments in social impact bonds issues by companies limited by shares. Further details of the relief will be published in January 2014. Withers' responded to the government consultation on the relief which was covered in a previous e-alert and a copy of our response is available by email from wendy.regan@withersworldwide.com Gift Aid: The government is committed to making it easier for charities to claim Gift Aid on charitable donations, including revising the Gift Aid form. The government will allow intermediaries to take a role in operating Gift Aid but will...