Charities Sector Launch ‘Vote no VAT for Charities’ Poster

Issued by Irish Charities Tax Reform Group

PRESS STATEMENT 09 May 2002

Janet Moran, actress, dressed as a charity collector but actually collecting for the revenue outside the Department of Finance. The Irish Charities Tax Reform Group today launched their ‘Vote no VAT for Charities’ Poster outside the Department of Finance. ICTRG commenced this nation-wide campaign to coincide with the election. The campaign has generated thousands of positive responses on the website www.vatcampaign.com.

Deirdre Mortell, Chairperson of ICTRG said today, “We have had a tremendous response to our campaign from the general public, mostly through our www.vatcampaign.com website. Over 10,000 emails have been sent by members of the general public to election candidates and we have had responses from the main political parties and several individual politicians. The charities sector interact and support in some way over 500,000 people in Ireland every year. If the sector are to continue this level of activity all possible means of financial support should be considered by Government.”

Janet Moran, actress, dressed as a charity collector but actually collecting for the revenue outside the Department of Finance. ICTRG launched this campaign to highlight the fact the Charities sector pay €63m annually to the Government in VAT – all of which is unrecoverable. The charities sector believe that the next Government can deal with this issue by introducing a well ring-fenced refund mechanism.

People are again asked to support the campaign by logging onto www.vatcampaign.com.

Photographed is Janet Moran, actress, dressed as a charity collector but actually collecting for the revenue outside the Department of Finance.

Pictures are available from :

MacInnes Photography 01-6610215

Further information

Wally Young, Young Communications 01-6680530 or 087-2471520