Tax

On 5 June 2023 the UK tax authority (“HMRC”) published the first issue of its charities newsletter. The purpose of the newsletter is to keep charities updated on tax related developments that may be of interest to them.

The newsletter, available here, focuses on, among other things:

1. The restriction of reliefs and exemptions to UK charities with effect from 15 March 2023, with certain grandfathering rules for non-UK charities registered with HMRC for tax reliefs and exemptions as of 15 March 2023, as announced in Spring Budget 2023;
2. The charities tax compliance consultation (which closes on 20 July 2023), which considers reforms to certain of the tax rules relevant to charities; and
3. Review of the Gift Aid regime, in particular reviewing the current processes for claiming Gift Aid that are used by charities.

The newsletter also contains various reminders for charities, for example regarding how to tell HMRC about any changes to a charity and dealing with tax adjustments for overpaid Gift Aid.

Charities can use the link above to sign up to receive alerts each time a newsletter is published going forward.

This is a welcome development with HMRC seeking to keep the charities sector up to date on matters that may be relevant to it.