Making Gifts To Charity In Your Will
If you support a local charity or make regular gifts to them, have you considered leaving a legacy to them in your Will? A gift to a charity can benefit both an organisation whose work you support, but can also be of benefit to your estate if there might be Inheritance Tax to pay.
By giving at least 10% of your net estate to charity you can reduce the rate of Inheritance Tax from 40% to 36%. If you are leaving the whole of your estate to be divided between a number of people and organisations it can be simple to calculate the amount that should be gifted, but if you would like advice about this we would be happy to chat with you.
If you want to make a gift to a charity, it is important to check exactly where the gift will end up. Whilst many charities have local branches that are part of the main organisation, there can be local organisations that are entirely separate entities.
A simple way to find out whether you are dealing with a branch of the main charity or a local organisation is to check the Charity Register. For example, if you wanted to support the work of Age UK in the Fens, by checking the register you would see that Age UK Cambridgeshire and Peterborough exists as an independent organisation and you could make a gift direct to them.
Unless you specify that you wish to support the local charity, it is likely that your gift will be made to the national charity, so if your intention is for your gift to be for the benefit of local services you need to make sure it is made directly to the local group.
Melanie Wicklen CEO AgeUKCAP told us:
“Financial gifts left to us are absolutely vital to our work. They enable us to deliver our essential services for older people in this area - including our advice line, practical support and friendship services. Such gifts help us to expand our support and develop services to tackle the issues facing individuals as we grow older, such as poverty, isolation and loneliness. Much of what we do would not be possible without gifts in wills. It’s a wonderful legacy for a person to leave, enabling others to continue benefitting from their thoughtfulness.”
If you would like further advice about making gifts to charities in your Will please contact Cath Collins or Kieren Cross on 01945 898090 or via email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
