No Joy with Finance Bill Campaign 03/04/03

Despite our securing widespread support from members of the Oireachtas Finance and Public Services Committee, the Minister, Charlie McCreevy was not prepared to make any changes to the operation of the tax relief scheme on donations this year. He believes that the scheme needs more time to bed down and therefore refused to accept the two amendments proposed by ICTRG to reduce the donation threshold to €100 and to extend the relief to gifts of non-cash assets. We have attached transcripts of the Committee-stage debate on the two amendments for those of you interested in the detail. click here for details

Two further amendments relating to charities were debated at committee stage and though defeated the exchanges were interesting. Dan Boyle (Greens) put down an amendment on the VAT issue for charities – click here for details and
Joan Burton TD (Lab.) proposed an amendment requiring charities to publish their accounts. click here for details

Despite the outcome this year ICTRG will continue to work towards lowering the donation threshold and extending the tax reliefs to gifts of non-cash assets. It is our intention to commission research on gifting non-cash assets during the year, which will draw on the experiences in other countries to help strengthen our case.