Budget 2018 | Charity and Not-for-Profit Sector

On Monday, Philip Hammond, the Chancellor of the Exchequer had announced the Budget. Whilst there had been some effort to announce changes that could ultimately benefit different areas of the charity and not-for-profit sector, it appears that there is a lack of any long-term strategy surrounding investment.

Here is a summary of what was mentioned in the Budget.

Charity Taxes

The government aims to reduce the administrative burdens on charities by introducing new measures, effective from April 2019.  One change is the increase in the upper limit for trading that charities can carry out without incurring a tax liability. This means that for charities whose turnover is under £20,000, the upper limit will now increase from £5,000 to £8,000. For charities whose turnover exceeds £200,000 the upper limit will increase from £50,000 to £80,000.

Another change is that charity shops using the Retail Gift Aid Scheme will only have to send letters to donors every three years when their goods raise less than £20 a year, rather than every tax year.

The government also aims to increase the individual donation limit under the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme to £30. This will mostly apply to small collections where it is impractical to obtain a Gift Aid declaration.

Emergency Services

The government aims to extend its support to air ambulance trusts by making £10million of capital funding in England available to them.

The government will also introduce an exemption for the purpose-built vehicles operated by Blood Bikes from April 2020.

Food waste

There is also a commitment to eradicate food waste. 50 million meals’ worth of edible food is wasted annually and so the government will provide £15million to charities to distribute the excess food.

Community

The chancellor announced that it will aim to support communities to help them with local assets and commemorate the First World War and the Holocaust. The three main areas of interest include Village halls, Miners’ Welfare facilities and Armed Forces organisations’ facilities. The government will provide up to £8million to help with the cost of repairs and alterations.

There is also £10million available to support the mental health of veterans. This funding will be available during the centenary of the First World War Armistice, in memory of the men and women who made sacrifices.

An overview of all of the general key changes announced can be viewed here.

For further information on any of the points announced at the Budget 2018, contact Suda Ratnam at suda.ratnam@raffingers.co.uk.