Clause 83 - Giving through the self-assessment return
Finance Bill
10:45 am
Mr John Healey (Economic Secretary, HM Treasury; Wentworth, Labour)
As the hon. Gentleman says, the clause introduces a new facility on self-assessment returns to allow individuals to give all or a specified amount of
their tax repayment to charity. The taxpayer will specify to which charity the donation is to be made and they will be able to make a gift aid declaration on the return so that the donation can be worth even more to the charity. The taxpayer can also choose to remain anonymous and still make the donation under gift aid.
I welcome the welcome in principle for the clause from the hon. Member for Chichester (Mr. Tyrie). I lost count of the precise number of questions that he asked, but I hope that I have not lost track of the points that he wanted answering. On the question of highlighting a possible limit, I will consider his points made and determine whether due and appropriate attention has been given to making taxpayers aware of it.
That was No. 1—no, in fact it was the hon. Gentleman's question No. 2, but to return to his first question, there are some 38,000 charities on the list and the number is increasing all the time. Charities have the opportunity to enter their names on it throughout the year, and it is regularly updated so that taxpayers can access the information. There are no criteria—there is a process. That is because, by asking charities to put themselves forward for inclusion we can offer taxpayers a single list from which to choose that does not exist anywhere else. If there were another suitable and comprehensive list, we would use it. All that the taxpayer has to enter on the return is the code for the charity. That should eliminate errors and confusion about which charity has been chosen to benefit from the repayments. The approach has allowed the Inland Revenue to develop a streamlined process. The charities signing up have simply to provide their bank account details, allowing donations to be paid directly into their accounts. Charities receive the tax repayments on gift aid donations made that way without having to make claims.