NAVCA budget statement
20/03/2013
Following the Budget announcement by George Osborne today, Joe Irvin, Chief Executive of NAVCA, said;
“We welcome the fact that charities employing staff will benefit from the proposal that employers’ national insurance will be cut from April next year. However, we feel that George Osborne has missed a bigger opportunity. He could have demonstrated he understands that as well as providing vital support to communities, local charities and voluntary organisations can help get our local economies moving.”
“We would have liked to see an investment fund to specifically help micro social enterprise and local charities to generate growth in the poorest areas. We didn’t get this and now need to see how the Lord Heseltine’s proposal to stimulate the economy by creating local growth deals with Local Enterprise Partnership can be used to support local charities and social enterprises.”
The key points from the Budget
- A new employment allowance will take the first £2,000 off the employer national insurance bill of every company in the country (Treasury say it could be worth £45 million to 35,000 charities).
- Gift Aid – The Government will consult on proposals to make it easier to claim Gift Aid through a wide range of digital giving channels, including options for enabling donors to complete a single Gift Aid declaration to cover all their donations through a specific channel.
- Social enterprise. The Government will introduce a new tax relief to encourage private investment in social enterprise. The Government will consult formally on the details of the relief by summer 2013 and the relief will be introduced in Finance Bill 2014.
- 1 penny off the price of a pint of beer, and the fuel escalator has been scrapped.
- Fuel duty: the 3p per litre increase in the fuel duty scheduled for September is cancelled.
- The economy is expected to grow by just 0.6% this year, not 1.2% as expected. Then growth of 1.8% in 2014, and 2.3% in 2015.
- The national debt will hit 85% of GDP, and will not start falling until 2017-18 (a year later than expected).
- Whitehall spending cuts will reach £3bn, not £2.5bn as expected, to fund a capital expenditure programme.
- The Income tax allowance will rise to £30,000 by April 2014; corporation tax will fall to 20%.
Read the original article on the NAVCA website here.