The financial outlook for many is rather uncertain but churches and charities will benefit directly from one of the announcements made in last week's budget.
In the 2007 budget a reduction in the basic rate of Income Tax was announced and from 6 April 2008 it appeared that the amount of tax that churches and other charities could claim back under the Gift Aid scheme would drop substantially.
In this March's budget the Chancellor announced that for the next 3 years from this coming 6 April charities can continue to claim Gift Aid as if the basic rate of tax were 22%.
This is really good news and means that we can continue to reclaim tax under Gift Aid at the same rate as in previous years until 5 April 2011.
