# MP calls for action on VAT and National Insurance

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2003/01/27/mp-calls-action-vat-and-national-insurance/
- Published: 2003-01-27T00:00:00+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

Bob Russell MP has launched a campaign to help charities to

get compensation for the Value Added Tax (VAT) they cannot recover and the increased
National Insurance contributions they will be facing from April 2003.
Irrecoverable
VAT is estimated to cost the charity sector more than £400 million per year, and
it is estimated that the impact of the coming increases in National Insurance will
cost the sector more than £50 million per year.

Mr Russell, Liberal Democrat MP for Colchester, has tabled a Parliamentary Early
Day Motion (EDM) calling on the Government “to introduce measures to reduce or remove
this crippling financial burden on charities.” He is also a Member of the Home Affairs
Select Committee.

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He said that “The more services charities provide, the more they lose in irrecoverable
VAT. The forthcoming increase in National Insurance will put even further pressure
on the sector and will make it more difficult for charities to achieve their objectives
and meet the government’s goals for

improvements in public services.”

Les Jones OBE, Deputy Chairman of the Charity Finance Directors Group (CFDG), welcome
the initiative. He said: “We are delighted that MPs are raising the charity sector’s
concerns about the increasing tax we are facing. We will be encouraging CFDG members
to write to their own MP to ask them for their support of this important parliamentary
motion.”

Early Day Motion (EDM) 552 calls for the government to “as a priority, to introduce
measures to reduce or remove this crippling financial burden on charities.”

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