Where charity begins
MAKE the taxman subscribe to your chari- ties — here's how. You open an account with the Charities Aid Foundation, which sends you a cheque-book. Use it for pay- ments to charities. CAF reclaims Gift Aid from the Revenue at your marginal tax rate of 25 or 40 per cent, and pays it into your account. This works if you give £600 a year or more — payments to get into fund-rais- ing functions, payments to get out of them, they all mount up. . '. There is a moral in this for Chancellors. Gift Aid is not new it came in with John Major's 1990 budget. He was proud of it, the tax professionals knew all about it, I vaguely remembered it, and I dare say that millions of givers have never heard of it. Moral: tax breaks need marketing — Personal Equity Plans, so slow to take off, were another example and marketing needs professionals. Chan- cellors who involve them early have a better chance of seeing their bright ideas fly.
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