Widespread support for the move
A Gift Aid emergency relief package should be made available for struggling voluntary sector organisations.
The call was made by the chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Philanthropy and Social Investment in a letter to chancellor Rishi Sunak.
In the letter, Rushanara Ali MP said voluntary organisations and social enterprises have played a central role in the UK’s response to the coronavirus pandemic but “many of these organisations face major funding challenges, and without urgent government support they are likely to go bust through no fault of their own”.
It says: “The Charity Finance Group estimates that changing the effective tax rate for Gift Aid to 25% would be worth roughly £360m."
The Gift Aid Emergency Relief Package would mean that a £100 donation from a UK tax-payer would increase to £133.33 for the charity once Gift Aid had been claimed.
The letter also calls for measures including further support for the sector at the end of the government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, which is due to close at the end of April, and an extension of social investment tax relief, which is due to come to an end in the same month.
Rushanara Ali, the Labour MP for Bethnal Green & Bow, says in a letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, that charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises have played a central role in the UK’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
But she says that “many of these organisations face major funding challenges, and without urgent government support they are likely to go bust through no fault of their own”.
In the letter Ali asks that the government urgently implement the following proposals before the Spring Budget next week, including “a Gift Aid emergency relief package”.
It says: “The Charity Finance Group estimates that changing the effective tax rate for Gift Aid to 25 per cent would be worth roughly £360m."
The letter also calls for measures including further support for the sector at the end of the government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, which is due to close at the end of April, and an extension of social investment tax relief, which is due to come to an end in the same month.
