Giving to charities

[Fartown]

You have to opt-in to gift aid a donation, by default the donation would be subject to tax I believe. I don't know for sure. But I do recall having to give name and postcode when asking to gift-aid a donation.

 

The suggestion to round-off a figure and donate the difference is good, but I can't see cash points/card machines in shops being able to take that input. Sure VISA/banks may already have that data, but are the systems linked and would the banks be able to share it legally (given the plethora of rules around data)?

 

If you don't opt in request gift aid then you will have paid tax on the money you give - just as you will have paid tax on all the other money you earn - and the government will keep that tax.

 

If, however, you request gift aid, then the government will pay the amount you paid in tax to the charity.

 

They don't charge the charities tax on the money they receive, whether you request gift aid or not.

 

'Rounding Up' would gain some money for charities, but I wonder whether it would be a significant amount?

 

After all, many pubs have a bottle for spare change or a collection tin for the Landlord's favourite charity on the bar. I'm sure those bottles do provide an income for the charities they support, but I ownder whether that income represents a significant proportion of their annual totals?

 

As I said in an earlier post, I've no objection to a donation facility being made available, but if it becomes an 'in your face' demand for money, it may well have the opposite effect to that intended.

 

At one place I used to work, we had charity collectors coming around the offices once or twice a week every week. It became tedious and in the end, we had to put a stop to it. The employees selected 4 charities and those 4 charities were allowed to send around fund raisers once a year. There was nothing to stop people from giving money to other charities, but everybody seemed relieved when the persistent pestering stopped.

[grababargin]

ive just heard this on the news:shocked:

i think its disgusting.

i give to charity in my own way and in my own time, when i want.

 

its a ploy to get the government out of paying.

 

how would the government like us to stop paying into their charity pot, so that we can pay into other pots.

[Fartown]

The obvious cause for suspicion about the scheme is the involvement of the banks and major retailers. There will be costs in administering the scheme and who decides how much is raked off to pay for this and who decides which charities benefit ?

 

Surely since the banks and retailers are the people who handle money every day they are the ideal people to be involved in the scheme? - There wouldn't be a lot of point in restricting the scheme to people who didn't handle money.

 

As for 'who gets the money' presumably the donor would be able to choose. (- A list of possible recipients, each with two-digit code?) If not, then donations themselves would probably be a nice round number. I doubt many people would be prepared to give money if they didn't know where it was going to ... though having said that, there is no shortage of people willing to pay the voluntary tax on stupidity.

 

Hopefully the cost of setting up the scheme (software?) would be borne by those proposing it and there would be no (as in zero) deductions from individual donations. The system for deducting the money (the card machine) is already there; the system for handling the transaction (the bank) is already there and the retailer is already paying the cost for usiing it.

 

Would there really be a significant cost in processing an additional instruction to debit Xp [or £X] from the account the system is already dealing with and credit it to account YY?

 

...Perhaps the most disturbing apsect is that the govt. will be keeping tabs on your donations....how else would they be able to implement this ? .... "Under the proposals, anyone making sizeable charitable donations would get letters from ministers. "

 

Why should anybody be 'disturbed' by the government knowing that they give money to any particular charity? Those who donate money on various flag days walk around displaying a little flag showing that they have given money. None of them seems to be particularly disturbed about it.

 

As for letters going to people who give sizeable donations, are 'thank you' letters particularly sinister?

 

It could be that the letters will invite those who give sizeable sums to gift-aid the donation.

[Guest]

ive just heard this on the news:shocked:

i think its disgusting.

i give to charity in my own way and in my own time, when i want.

 

its a ploy to get the government out of paying.

 

how would the government like us to stop paying into their charity pot, so that we can pay into other pots.

 

 

I fully agree with your post.

Another ploy for us to pick up the tab instead of the government.

 

We already help support some charities so any begging bowl requests of this sort will be told to take a running jump.

 

Why don't they give the MP's expenses budget to charities? - it would be putting the money to better use that way.

[Mecky]

Stood behind a person at the ATM.

 

Check balance on account

Do you want to donate?

Which charity?

Show balance

 

Insert second card

Check balance on account

Do you want to donate?

Which charity?

Show balance

 

Insert third card

Check balance on account

Do you want to donate?

Which charity?

Show balance

 

Insert first card

Withdraw X amount?

Do you want to donate?

Which charity?

 

Insert second card

Withdraw X amount?

Do you want to donate?

Which charity?

 

Insert first card

Withdraw X amount?

Do you want to donate?

Which charity?

 

 

Meanwhile you're 10th in the queue ... Good grief

[Fartown]

Strange, isn't it.

 

When the government suggested that people might wish to pay £1, with:

 

28p to 'good causes' as defined by Parliament

12p to the Government as duty

5p to retailers as commission,

5p to the administrators (in this scheme the banks)

and the other 50 pence being returned to the donors there were a few complaints, but there was a huge take-up.

 

Nobody seemed too worried about donating a pound and only 28p going to questionable 'good causes'.

 

 

ive just heard this on the news:shocked:

i think its disgusting.

i give to charity in my own way and in my own time, when i want.

 

its a ploy to get the government out of paying.

 

how would the government like us to stop paying into their charity pot, so that we can pay into other pots.

 

You can still give as much as you like to whatever charities you prefer. It sounds as if this scheme will make giving slightly easier ... my only reservation is that perhaps there might be pressure on people to give, which would do more harm than good. - Might even result in decreased income to charities.

 

Why does the government need 'a ploy to get out of paying'? If they decide they are going to reduce state funding of something then they will probably do so. If the charities can, then no doubt they will pick up the slack, but if they can't they won't.

[Alex C.]

I think my bank does something similar - I get money on debit card transactions rounded up to the nearest £ and put into my savings account. I can't imagine it would take a massive amount of effort to transfer it to a charity instead.

 

I can easily rack up £20 in a month, but don't notice it missing so I can see why it could help.

[mardyarse]

giving to charity perpetuates the myth that the capitalist systems works and it doesnt, there is enough moneyin this country for us not to need charity its how the governments choose to spend it. We have been giving to charity for eons and nothing has changed

furthermore what exactly do they do with donations? take cancer research who apparently fund resesrch into drugs and fund drug studies but ive never seen any medication manufactured by them and i used to work in a hospital pharmacy! so are they funding drug trials etc for the multinational drug companies because i know full well if i had a great idea researched it and it was a winner i certainly wouldnt let anyone else start manufacturing it and make millions would you?

i dont give to charity because as adults we have the ability and right to vote, mobilise and change the system which ultimately is the only way to make a real difference and make the need for charity obsolete

p.s i donate to animals and childrens charrities for that reason they dont have a vote and any opportunity to change things they are just lumbered with the **** we created for them

[Guest]

Strange, isn't it.

 

When the government suggested that people might wish to pay £1, with:

 

28p to 'good causes' as defined by Parliament

12p to the Government as duty

5p to retailers as commission,

5p to the administrators (in this scheme the banks)

and the other 50 pence being returned to the donors there were a few complaints, but there was a huge take-up.

 

Nobody seemed too worried about donating a pound and only 28p going to questionable 'good causes'.

 

 

 

 

You can still give as much as you like to whatever charities you prefer. It sounds as if this scheme will make giving slightly easier ... my only reservation is that perhaps there might be pressure on people to give, which would do more harm than good. - Might even result in decreased income to charities.

 

Why does the government need 'a ploy to get out of paying'? If they decide they are going to reduce state funding of something then they will probably do so. If the charities can, then no doubt they will pick up the slack, but if they can't they won't.

 

 

Because they are anticipating the day when the charities say that, after all the government cuts, they can no longer afford to continue with their work.

[Berberis]

I give to charity and always will, but I refuse to give to any charity that uses slick advertising to tug at your heart strings or doorstep collectors to pressure you into signing up for a direct debit.

 

I give what I want when I want.