Taxing time for fundraising opportunity
Howard Lake | 8 September 2004 | News
As we are approaching the first deadline for submitting personal tax returns, now is a good time to check that your charity is registered with the Inland Revenue to receive donations via self-assessment tax return forms.
The run-up to the September and January deadlines for submitting personal self-assessment tax returns is a good opportunity for charities to remind donors that they can donate part or all of any tax rebate to them.
To do so, however, your charity needs to have registered already. By doing so it is given a reference code which donors will need to quote if they wish to donate their tax rebate.
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It is too late to qualify for this year’s tax rebates, but charities can apply now to start benefiting from next year onwards. If you send your charity’s details by mid November 2004 it should appear on the December list available to would-be donors. The application form can be downloaded from the Inland Revenue’s Web site.
It is too early to know how many donors have taken up this opportunity. The Institute of Fundraising says that “there has not yet been any research done to see how effective it is, but the Institute has signed up and even we have received donations via this method.” There is certainly a tempting pot of £3 billion which the Inland Revenue repaid to taxpayers in 2003.
So, register your charity to benefit from this scheme, and then plan to start promoting it in the run-up to the two deadlines for submission of personal tax returns. As the Inland Revenue says: “individual charities have an important role to play in raising awareness by telling their own donors about the scheme and encouraging them to give in this way.”
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.