VAT comments raise refund hopes
Howard Lake | 20 December 2006 | News
The Irish Charity Tax Reform Group’s campaign to seek the refund of VAT paid by charities received a boost with the recent comments by the Irish finance minister that he could pay such a refund. Irish charities pay 21 percent unrecoverable VAT on a range of items such as fundraising costs, buildings and phone bills.
Softening the earlier position that VAT law could not be altered due to EU regulations, Finance Minister Brian Cowen said in answer to a Dail question that he could compensate charities without contravening EU regulations. It is understood that EU member Denmark operates such a compensation scheme.
Unlike businesses charities cannot reclaim VAT and it is estimated that the annual cost to the sector is over ‚€20 million. St Vincent de Paul estimates that it will pay over ‚€2.6 million in VAT in 2006. The cost of fundraising supplies such as print, mailing lists and advertising are subject to VAT.
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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.