Tax-effective charity

luckat

At this time of year, when people generally give whatever they can afford to charity, I wanted to give a donation to Medecins Sans Frontieres, which does such good and brave work in conflict zones.

But for the most effective gift, I was hoping that the organisation was part of the scheme whereby you give €250 or more, and the charity gets the tax relief on it (if you're PAYE) or you can claim it off your tax (if you're self-employed).

But to my dismay, this was the answer I got from MSF:

Medecins sans Frontieres is a recognised charity in Ireland and we are at present in the process of obtaining a CHY number.

Unfortunately to obtain 'Gift Aid', which will allow us to receive PAYE free donations in excess on €250, takes up to 2 years. Thus we will not be able to avail of this until 2009. Hopefully you can consider supporting MSF when Gift Aid is available to us.

*Two years* for a charity to get Gift Aid? Isn't this a bit nutty?

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

Hi Luckat, fair play on your gesture of giving.

It was crazy wandering around Liffey Valley yesterday and seeing the amount of money being spent, probably a lot of it needlessly.

I was thinking that there should be a pledge that people can sign up to at Christmas whereby people work out how much they are going to spend on presents, and then give 5% of that amount to charity and make do with the remainder amount of money for presents.

Maybe the organisation could give out Christmas cards to members of the scheme which say something like "I'm a 5% Christmas Pledger"

/end rambling

I don't think this thread is suitable in this forum, maybe consumer issues might be a bit more suitable.

luckat

I actually don't think this is a consumer issue, Roundtower 2; it's about how to make good use of your tax allowances. But if you'd like to discuss it with the mod in Consumer Issues and decide to move it, feel free.

Here's the list of eligible charities

http://www.revenue.ie/index.htm?/publications/lists/charity-donations.htm

- I see Ruhama is included. So (hm?) is Medialab Europe Ltd.

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

no, you are right it isn't a consumer issue. but i have no idea where to move it! it's definitely not banking though. would you have a suggestion yourself? Maybe politics?

FindingNemo

Roundtower2 wrote: »

It was crazy wandering around Liffey Valley yesterday and seeing the amount of money being spent, probably a lot of it needlessly.

This really makes my blood boil, who gives you the right to say what people are spending their own hard earned cash for is needless or not and that instead, 5% of what they spent on items purchased should be donated to charity.

FindingNemo

Roundtower2 wrote: »

no, you are right it isn't a consumer issue. but i have no idea where to move it! it's definitely not banking though. would you have a suggestion yourself? Maybe politics?

Volunteerism

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

FindingNemo wrote: »

This really makes my blood boil, who gives you the right to say what people are spending their own hard earned cash for is needless or not and that instead, 5% of what they spent on items purchased should be donated to charity.

lol, your blood is boiling?! Something makes me think that you suffer high blood pressure if you can get irate over what was a suggestion.

Volunteerism isn't really a suitable forum

FindingNemo

Roundtower2 wrote: »

lol, your blood is boiling?! Something makes me think that you suffer high blood pressure if you can get irate over what was a suggestion.

Volunteerism isn't really a suitable forum

Yes, it does, purely because it is such an idiotic statement to make that what people are purchasing is needless.
Don't you buy needless things on occassions, did you cut your christmas present allowance by 5% and give it to charity.

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

FindingNemo wrote: »

Yes, it does, purely because it is such an idiotic statement to make that what people are purchasing is needless.
Don't you buy needless things on occassions, did you cut your christmas present allowance by 5% and give it to charity.

maybe calm down a bit, and stop calling a suggestion i made 'idiotic'? It was a SUGGESTION ...

luckat

Is there a forum relating to tax issues?

As for the Liffey Valley thing - I used to feel like that, but now I quite like Christmas. Think of all those loving presents people are buying to say "I'm glad you're alive, I really, really like you" to their kids and their wives and husbands and aunties and mammies and even their cross old dads!

Even when they're buying a loving present for themselves, it's a gesture of kindness.

Especially for children, it's the time of year when they really get to feel they're special, and when they can express their love for their grandma and granda and all kinds of people.

ojewriej

Is it just me, or is the title of this thread sounds just wrong and a bit cold-hearted?

I'm not having a go at the OP, honestly, i know what he means and I even agree with him. It's just that "Tax-efficient charity" sounds so calculating, and I don't know, so Wall Street. Am I too sensitive?

brian_rbk

"tax-effective" charity?

luckat

Sure, it's cold-hearted.

I give more if I can get tax relief, or the charity can get tax relief. Yes, that's cold. I'm a bad person.

parsi

luckat wrote: »

*Two years* for a charity to get Gift Aid? Isn't this a bit nutty?

Strange. I give to a particular charity and a few years ago they sent a mailshot stating that they were eligible for the tax allowances.

This doc http://www.revenue.ie/index.htm?/publications/leaflets/infolef7_f.htm suggests that they need to be registered for 2 years before they can gain tax relief. Not necessarily a bad thing as they need to ensure they are not fly-by-nights...

ojewriej

luckat wrote: »

Sure, it's cold-hearted.

I give more if I can get tax relief, or the charity can get tax relief. Yes, that's cold. I'm a bad person.

That's not what I meant. As I said, I wasn't having a go at you, it's just the way it sounds, that's all.

Of course i makes more sense to give more to the charity and less to the taxman.