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[Cliche alert/] A week is a long time in politics [/cliche], but it was 7 days ago I suggested there were signs of encouragement the Coalition would start to see sense on the misguided Charity Tax — and both Nick Clegg and David Cameron have signalled they’re willing to think again. Here’s Nick in the Telegraph: Nick Clegg made clear  [ Read More ]

The usually very sane Philip Stephens Aunt Sallies forth in today’s Financial Times to argue that Philanthropy is no alternative to paying tax as he sticks up for the Coalition’s Charity Tax. It rests on two false assumptions. First: Faced with the need for swingeing spending cuts and tax increases to reduce the deficit, [George Osborne] thinks the wealthiest in  [ Read More ]

I suggested at the end of last week there were reasons to be encouraged that the Coalition might see sense on the Charity Tax. And according to today’s Financial Times there does indeed seem to be signs of concession, albeit not a total U-turn: People close to the chancellor have told the Financial Times Mr Osborne is considering two proposals  [ Read More ]

One of the aspects of the furore over the Coalition’s Charity Tax that has struck me is that charity is a more divisive issue than I’d realised. Those of us who work in the charity sector probably take for granted that our organisations provide a public good, that the aggregated generosity of donors and the [...]

A few encouraging signs today that the Government is prepared to have the strength of mind to think again about the ‘Charity Tax’. Encouraging sign #1 is that the right-wing press is up in arms about the proposal to hit charities’ bottom lines. Neither David Cameron nor George Osborne will take delight, for example, in seeing this Sun headline: Charity  [ Read More ]

… Then you could do worse than follow the quite absurd contortions the Coalition is currently executing as it attempts to defend its Charity Tax. The Charity Tax — if you haven’t yet come across the term — caps the tax-relief available to the most generous philanthropists, with the very likely outcome that good causes are going to have less  [ Read More ]

So says The Guardian today: The culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, was blindsided by Treasury plans to restrict tax relief for philanthropists, the National Theatre’s artistic director, Sir Nicholas Hytner, has claimed. Hytner is one of a number of figures from the arts and charities campaigning for the government to think through the impact of its changes to tax relief in  [ Read More ]

Four days ago I wrote that the ‘Charity Tax’ — the Coalition’s limiting of tax-relief on large philanthropic donations — “has not attracted mainstream media attention”. I’m glad to say that has now changed, with The Observer dedicating its front page lead to the story: … [hundreds of groups] across the charity, aid, arts, health, university and church sectors …  [ Read More ]

I blogged yesterday that it’s time for Nick Clegg and the Coalition to see sense and stop the ‘Charity Tax’. That was quite a wordy post, so here’s an infographic to help explain why it’s wrong: The graphic courtesy Charities Aid Foundation’s #GiveItBackGeorge campaign website here. To help scrap the Charity Tax, you can sign the petition here.

This year’s budget was, in general, a good one for Lib Dems. Most notably, the party’s number one priority of taking more low-paid workers out of tax was fast-tracked, while the controversies, and specifically the cut in the 50p top-rate at a time when pensioners’ tax allowances are being frozen, have hit their Tory backers’ [...]