Donate £10k to charity when you buy a house?

[saaby93]

Builder comes up with idea to pass £10k of purchasers money onto charity
https://www.hertsad.co.uk/property/why-should-i-bu...

[anonymous-user]

Call me cynical, but I imagine this is simply a ploy by the housebuilder to get some good press and free advertising, to help them flog their new properties.

£10k won't really make much of a dent when you are charging "£800k for a 2 bed apartment".

[princeperch]

I suspect it won't make any material difference to the builders bottom line. There is probably a tax dodge here so they are simply agreeing to donate money they would otherwise be paying in corporation tax.

[The Road Crew]

Marketing. Its working as well, as we're talking about it and it's in the paper etc.

Mind you, 10k from an 800k flat isn't really going to make much a dent in the (almost certainly) huge profit margin!

[320d is all you need]

£700-£900k houses
I expect profit on each house would be £200k - How generous of him!

I'm being a cynical arse today.

[saaby93]

Wouldnt most buyers prefer the £10k discount?

[mcdjl]

saaby93 said:

Wouldnt most buyers prefer the £10k discount?

i would like the donation to be made to the mcdjl transport foundation which has the aim of improving access to cars for all.

[anonymous-user]

saaby93 said:

Wouldnt most buyers prefer the £10k discount?

I would have thought so, but at £950k, the £10k represents a discount of 1.05%.

Still, £10k is £10k, and I would rather have it knocked off the price rather than given to a charity of the developers choice. I appreciate this may mark me out as selfish.

[BatForcePC]

Pretty sure any company "giving" to charity is able to claim corporation tax relief on the amount....

[thebraketester]

I fail to view that as an incentive.

[Sophisticated Sarah]

I’m starting a charity before people realise what a scam they are

[anonymous-user]

Sophisticated Sarah said:

I’m starting a charity before people realise what a scam they are

I'm fairly sure they have been regarded as a scam for years, yet they still seem to continue.

The figures are easy to find, and it may not shock people to discover that many of the big name charities spend as much as 74% of their income on their own salaries, offices, expenses, and advertising etc.

Figures published by the charity commission also show that smaller charities and local charities spend almost all their income on the things they intended to support or fund, but, the 'big' charities with income over £100m are massively inefficient, and often spend more on themselves than they give to the causes they support.

[320d is all you need]

Lord Marylebone said:

saaby93 said:

Wouldnt most buyers prefer the £10k discount?

I would have thought so, but at £950k, the £10k represents a discount of 1.05%.

Still, £10k is £10k, and I would rather have it knocked off the price rather than given to a charity of the developers choice. I appreciate this may mark me out as selfish.

I feel the same.

[Rivenink]

Lord Marylebone said:

Sophisticated Sarah said:

I’m starting a charity before people realise what a scam they are

I'm fairly sure they have been regarded as a scam for years, yet they still seem to continue.

The figures are easy to find, and it may not shock people to discover that many of the big name charities spend as much as 74% of their income on their own salaries, offices, expenses, and advertising etc.

Figures published by the charity commission also show that smaller charities and local charities spend almost all their income on the things they intended to support or fund, but, the 'big' charities with income over £100m are massively inefficient, and often spend more on themselves than they give to the causes they support.

Some charities are a scam because they're nothing more than vehicles for tax avoidance. Some charities are a scam because they provide services that Government should, but doesn't. Help for Heroes comes to mind here.

When comparing the percentages of how much of funds raised goes to the cause, its important to consider the scale: both in the cost of organisation, the total funds raised and used for the cause. 25% of £100m is a whole lot more than 95% of 100k, and provides a whole lot more benefit.

[pquinn]

Rivenink said:

25% of £100m is a whole lot more than 95% of 100k, and provides a whole lot more benefit.

Though not quite as much benefit as the people getting the 75% see.

[98elise]

BatForcePC said:

Pretty sure any company "giving" to charity is able to claim corporation tax relief on the amount....

If you give 10k to a charity then you are out of pocket 10k. Not getting taxed on that 10k isn't a benefit to you.

[Electro1980]

saaby93 said:

Wouldnt most buyers prefer the £10k discount?

It wouldn’t make any difference to the house price. Houses being houses, new or old, will sell for what they are worth to the buyer.

[Electro1980]

Lord Marylebone said:

Sophisticated Sarah said:

I’m starting a charity before people realise what a scam they are

I'm fairly sure they have been regarded as a scam for years, yet they still seem to continue.

The figures are easy to find, and it may not shock people to discover that many of the big name charities spend as much as 74% of their income on their own salaries, offices, expenses, and advertising etc.

Figures published by the charity commission also show that smaller charities and local charities spend almost all their income on the things they intended to support or fund, but, the 'big' charities with income over £100m are massively inefficient, and often spend more on themselves than they give to the causes they support.

Firstly, they don’t. The 74% figure seems to come from reports on BHF funding, which is actually not true and to do with journalists no understanding accounting.

Secondly, yes, small local charities are more “efficient”, but that does not make them better. Small local charities are run completely by volunteers in their spare time. Mrs Smith and the local Vicar might be able to find raise to fix the church roof, but they won’t be able to manage much research in to cancer therapies.

[Hoofy]

320d is all you need said:

Lord Marylebone said:

saaby93 said:

Wouldnt most buyers prefer the £10k discount?

I would have thought so, but at £950k, the £10k represents a discount of 1.05%.

Still, £10k is £10k, and I would rather have it knocked off the price rather than given to a charity of the developers choice. I appreciate this may mark me out as selfish.

I feel the same.

It's the charity of the buyer's choice.

Still, I'd take a £10k discount even if it is £800k.

For the builder, assuming £200k profit, that's 5%. I'd happily donate 5% of my profits to a charity if it got me free advertising (well, it's not free but imagine only having to pay for advertising if the advert sold!) and improved sales.

[Rivenink]

pquinn said:

Rivenink said:

25% of £100m is a whole lot more than 95% of 100k, and provides a whole lot more benefit.

Though not quite as much benefit as the people getting the 75% see.

Who exactly do you think is getting the 75%?