Despite the backdrop of low growth and falling living standards, BWB has been pleasantly surprised by some of the less widely reported announcements in the 2013 Budget. The devil will be in the details, but we are hopeful that some of these will provide a much needed boost to our clients in the charity and social enterprise sector in difficult times.
Tax relief for investment into social enterprise
We are delighted with the Chancellor's Budget announcement of the Government's intention to introduce a new tax relief for social investment. BWB has actively campaigned for this over several years and we look forward to taking an active role in the formal consultation on the design of the relief, expected to conclude by summer 2013.
We understand that the outcome of the consultation will be confirmed in the Autumn Statement 2013 and the tax relief will be introduced in the Finance Act next year.
Co-operatives and community benefit societies
There are proposals for a consultation in summer 2013 on options for raising the limit on individual subscriptions for withdrawable share capital in industrial and provident societies and introducing insolvency procedures for societies and credit unions. If it results in positive change, the consultation could further enhance the benefits of these structures as community and cooperative enterprises, continuing their resurgence over the last decade as vehicles for community investment.
Gift Aid for digital giving
The Government will consult on proposals to make it easier to claim Gift Aid through a wide range of digital giving channels, including enabling donors to complete a single Gift Aid declaration covering all their donations through a specific channel. Simplification in this area could have a very positive impact on individual charitable giving.
Charities to receive £2,000 help with National Insurance
We hope that many of our clients will benefit from the new provision for an allowance of £2,000 before employers' national insurance contributions are paid. This should allow businesses and charities to employ one worker on a salary of £22,400, or four employees working full time on the adult national minimum wage, without paying any employer national insurance contributions at all. Any help for our smaller charity and social enterprise start-up clients in growing their organisations and impact is very welcome.
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