When you aim to get involved in a cause like donating to a charity, you are not only putting in efforts to grow something you like but you are also attracting the tax benefits of charity in the UK. This might sound confusing to several people. However, this still has a solid background of discussion that can justify the point of donating to a charity can actually bring in tax benefits if you manage to do it in a certain way. The main and important thing to realise here is that you are investing to expand something you really care about and also you are on a track that will help you to reduce the amount in your tax bills.
This guide is based on a discussion that will help you to gather information about how they possibly can help you save on the tax amount just by being an individual who is donating to the charity. This involves the discussion about ways to reduce the income tax, how gift aid can work in this regard, ways to reduce the inheritance tax through giving the charity, and how can you make a claim for tax relief.
AccountingFirms can assist you in managing your business and accounting problems as well as avail maximum tax relief possible.
What is Gift Aid and How Does it Work for Tax Relief?
In simple words, we can say that gift aid is known to be a way for people who are inclined towards giving donations to charity, to reduce their tax bills amount, or to get the benefits of the tax relief offered by the government. You can choose the most suitable way from the list of paying the donation to the charity organisation.
You can even calculate the benefits and realise how much you owe in form of tax after donating to the charity and chasing the tax benefits. Moreover, you can be interested in donating to a charity through the gift aid now or leaving that cause in your will, the impact of your money will be maximised if you choose to do it through gift aids.
If you are tax payer with an additional or higher rate of tax, you will get the most benefit from the gift aid and it will help you to claim tax relief. As the higher taxpayer tends to pay the tax with a ratio of 40 or 45 percent in the current tax year, the basic rate which 20 percent will be easily claimed this way.
This means that a high taxpayer who is donating an amount of £100 to a charitable organisation, will be able to claim the tax relief with a ratio of 25 percent. This will be applicable to every pound that you have contributed to the charity amount.
Reducing Income Tax through Charitable Donations – Is it Possible?
Just like the government has designed a system of tax to gather amounts for the cause of a better society investment, in a similar way there are certain actions and behaviours that can help people to reduce the amount of tax that they have to pay to the government.
In order to inculcate and increase the tendency of people towards donating to charities, there are several incentives that work to reduce the tax bills for people by the government. This is for the people who are involved in the causes of donations to charitable organisations.
Reducing Inheritance Tax through Charitable Donations
If you plan the inheritance tax in an effective and efficient way, this will help you to reduce the tax amount that you owe to HMRC. One of the common and most popular ways of reducing your inheritance tax is to contribute to charitable donations. This will be helpful if you gather the required information before you begin the procedure to maximise your benefits.
How Do You Claim Tax Relief?
It is a simple process if you need to claim tax relief, you can simply do it through your self-assessment tax returns. However, if you are donating to the charity through the workplace scheme, the entire procedure will be different to claim the tax relief. Otherwise, all you will have to do is to do your income declaration and look for what tax relief you owe to reclaim.
Can Limited Companies Get Tax Relief from Charitable Donations?
Just like the individual can get tax relief by donating to charitable organisations, it is quite possible for limited companies to contribute to giving donations to charitable organisations and get tax relief of what they have invested in for tax benefits.
Moreover, you can give donations in form of a secondment to a charity, employees working charitable days, sponsorship payments, shares, property, land, equipment, and financial donations. Later after the procedure, the businesses are allowed to deduct the amount of the donations from the profit they are making through business activities. This must be done before the payment of the corporation tax.
Can You Get Tax Relief on Land, Property and Shares?
It is totally allowable to donate the approved shares, land, and property to given donations to charitable organisations. This will also bring in the benefits like claiming tax relief on capital gains and income tax by choosing this way to contribute to the donations.
This will be an equal tax efficient way as other ways are. So if you are the one who is inclined towards the idea of contributing to the donations by using the approved shares by HMRC, land or your property, you can give it a go-ahead and avail of the tax benefits just in other popular ways.
The Bottom Line
Now that you have gathered a fair amount of information about the tax benefits of charity in the UK, we can bring the discussion towards wrapping up. Since there are several ways to gain tax benefits by donating to charitable organisations. However, you need to find out the most suitable way that is aligned with your circumstances and requirements to maximise the benefits. We hope these few minutes of reading will help you to develop a better understanding of the tax benefits you can get after giving to charity in the UK.
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Disclaimer: All the information provided in this article on tax benefits of charity in the UK, including all the texts and graphics, is general in nature. It does not intend to disregard any of the professional advice.