Ltd Co donations to charity

Ltd Co donations to charity

Author
Discussion

Output Flange

Original Poster:

16,798 posts

211 months

Friday 30th September 2016
quotequote all
Can a Ltd company only donate to a registered charity? Is that registration detail required somewhere in the company return?

Brief background: I'd like to donate to the charity we got our rescue dog through. They're not a registered UK charity. If I can do it through my Ltd Co, so much the better.

Is that viable?

Eric Mc

121,956 posts

265 months

Saturday 1st October 2016
quotequote all
There is no restriction - although I would ask why the charity isn't registered.

I thought all charities set up in Britain HAD to register with the Charity Commission. Otherwise they will not be recognised by HMRC and will have to pay taxes on any surpluses.

s2kjock

1,681 posts

147 months

Saturday 1st October 2016
quotequote all
You need to be a UK registered charity for the company to get tax relief from corporation tax.

To clarify, being a registered charity would mean the Charity Commission (England and Wales) or the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (Scotland) who perform pretty much the same function in each jurisdiction.

Northern Ireland have recently set up their own equivalent, and I suspect registration with them gives you the same categorisation.

To officially call yourself a "charity" in any form you need to be registered with one of the above bodies.

You may, however, have organisations that carry out what might appear to be charitable activities but who do not actually have "charitable status" (ie are registered charities), and this could be the situation your dog rehoming place is in. Therefore no tax relief for your company on its donation, or no tax relief for you if it was you that made the donation personally.

If you made the donation personally and they were a charity, they would potentially be able to claim gift aid on your donation (subject to them registering with HMRC and following various rules). A charity cannot claim gift aid on a donation from a company however.

Not likely to apply in this case, but there are tax issues with charities receiving donations from people who receive a benefit in return from the donor.

Eric Mc

121,956 posts

265 months

Saturday 1st October 2016
quotequote all
If you were "sponsoring" an event or organisation and gaining some advertising from it for your business, then the cost would be allowable as an "advertising" cost. There are some restriction however, so you would need to be careful.