€50,000 VAT bill on fundraisers’ efforts criticised
Howard Lake | 8 February 2008 | News
Small pennies and ‘widows might’ was the biggest contributory factor in wiping out a €360,000 debt for new stained glass windows installed at St. John’s Church in Waterford. The additional cost of paying a €50,000 VAT bill, however, has been strongly criticised by local fundraisers.
As the final installment of €71,874 was handed over following the Vigil Mass in the Parnell Street Church the elderly parishioners were lauded for their generosity while the government was attacked for giving with one hand and taking with another.
In addition to the hefty bill which fell largely on the elderly parishioners they had to come up with over €50,000 in VAT which went straight into the coffers of central Government. That money corresponded almost to the last cent to the amount that the fundraising committee received by way of financial support from Waterford City Council.
“In effect between local and national Government we ended up getting nothing because we had to pay VAT at the rate of 21%”, said Kathleen O’Hagan, chairperson of the fundraising committee.
Calling on the Government to eliminate VAT on restoration and conservation work carried out on heritage sites and listed buildings she said that we should be following the lead of British prime Minister Gordon Brown. As Chancellor of the Exchequer he eliminated VAT on work carried out on heritage buildings.
“How can our old houses, churches and castles survive,” when the government has to get its share of what is spent on them?” asked Kathleen O’Hagan.
Without the generosity of the people of St. John’s parish and well wishers around the city and county it would not have been possible to wipe out the debt in just two-and-a-half years,” she added.
Ms O’Hagan went on to say that a deliberate decision was taken not to include any ‘black-tie’ events in the fundraising campaign. They also deliberately kept away from events costing €50 or more simply because the parishioners could not afford them.
“In everything that we ran we took into account what the parishioners could afford. They committed €2 a month for two-and-a-half years and the window boxes which were mainly filled with cents helped to raise thousands,” said Kathleen.
“In a way it brought us back to a time when the smallest amount of money was valuable and in our case cents turned into thousands of Euro.”
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.