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This website provides comprehensive information about how charities and donors are taxed in the UK.

If you are looking for a quick answer to a simple question, we recommend the HMRC tax guidance for charities.

However, if you are looking for a deeper analysis or an impartial view you are in the right place.

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If you have not (yet) bought the book associated with this site, Taxation of Charities and Nonprofit Organisations, you may register for a free one day trial. There is no charge for a one day trial account, but if you find the site useful, and wish to express support or thanks, the authors invite you to make a donation to the charity Water Aid.

If you have bought a copy of the book, you can register for the life of the edition and login.

You may enter this site once you have registered and logged in by clicking on the index below, or you can search the text.

Users may also contribute to the text or post comments, and if you see anything that needs correcting or expanding, please do. A copy of the next edition of our book will be given to the user who makes the most edits. User contributions are reviewed by Oliver Marre.

Contents of ToC online

ToC Online is the online version of the book Taxation of Charities and Nonprofit Organisations by James Kessler QC and Oliver Marre. The initial data was the current edition of the book, published September 2015.

Introduction

1 Policy Issues in Charity Taxation

2 Tax Avoidance and Evasion

3 Definitions of Charity

4 Taxation of Charity Income

5 Taxation of Charity Capital Gains

6 Charitable Expenditure Rules

7 Tainted Donation Rules

8 Trading by Charities

9 Trading Companies held by Charities

9 Business Sponsorship and Advertising

10 Corporate Charities

11 Employees and Beneficiaries of Charities

12 Extracting Value from Companies

13 Acquisition of Companies

14 Double Taxation Treaties

15 Cash Gifts from Individual to Charity (Gift Aid)

16 Gift Aid Small Donation Scheme

17 Corporate Gift Aid

18 Giving by Business to Charity

19 Payroll Giving Scheme

20 Interest-Free Loans to Charity

21 Relief for Gift of Shares and Land to Charity

22 Relief for Gifts of Works of Art to Charity

23 Capital Gains Tax Relief on Disposals to Charity

24 Inheritance Tax Reliefs on Transfers to Charity

25 Charity Legacy Relief

26 Will Drafting

27 Charitable Gift of Share of Residue: Benham Issues

28 Obtaining IT and IHT Reliefs on Gift by Will or IoV

29 Variation of Wills

30 Benefits for Donors

31 Trusts with Some Charitable Element

32 Payments to Charity From Non-resident Trusts

33 Estates of Deceased Persons: CGT

34 Estates of Deceased Persons: Income Tax

35 Value Added Tax: Basics

36 VAT: Exemption

37 VAT: Zero Rating

38 Stamp Duties

39 Rating Relief

40 Community Amateur Sports Clubs

41 Political Parties

42 Housing Associations

43 Local Authorities

44 Administration: Tax Returns and Claims

45 Appendix 1: International Entities: Approved Securities

46 Appendix 2: HMRC Model Gift Aid Declarations

47 Appendix 3: Substantial Donor Rules

48 Appendix 4: Bibliography

49 Appendix 5: How to Improve the taxation of Charities

50 Tables

If you want further advice

If you do not find the answer to your question in ToC online, or if you want advice on which you can legally rely, you may instruct James Kessler QC or Oliver Marre to advise. For further information see How to instruct James Kessler QC and Oliver Marre.

ToC archive editions

There are archive editions for ToC 2009/10 and 2011/12. This will occasionally be useful to investigate the tax position in those years, but the current edition will generally be the best starting point, as that has been written in the light of current HMRC guidance, and further thought and research.

Contact

If you have technical problems, or problems logging in click here

To contact James Kessler QC click here

To contact Oliver Marre, who reviews users online contributions, click here

To contact the publishers of Taxation of Charities and Non-profit Organisations click here

For multiple user licences, or to install on a firm's intranet contact the publishers

Technical notes

ToC online is in technical terms a Wiki on the lines of Wikipedia, but only registered users can edit this Wiki.

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