Churches get increased tax beak
-19/3/04
Churches have been handed a £10m tax windfall and granted a significant increase in VAT relief on building
Churches get increased tax beak
-19/3/04
Churches have been handed a £10m tax windfall and granted a significant increase in VAT relief on building repairs reports the Independent.
Religious leaders welcomed the decision to allow them to reclaim VAT on refurbishment at the full rate of 17.5 per cent, up from 12.5 per cent.
The concession, which applies only to listed buildings, will be in place from now until March 2006, the Treasury said.
A spokesman for the Church of England said it spends £130m a year on repairs to its 16,000 buildings, 13,000 of which are listed. He added: “We are very grateful for the relief … which is of enormous help to the church, which is the major owner of listed buildings in England.”
Neville Nagler, director general of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said: “We welcome this measure in so far as it makes a practical difference to listed synagogues throughout the country.”
The Committee for Patrimony of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, which manages historic Catholic churches, said: “In England and Wales there are 656 listed Catholic churches and chapels, and so the Chancellor’s announcement should make a considerable difference. The churches are not just important records of the past, but also witnesses to a living tradition.”
Churches get increased tax beak
-19/3/04
Churches have been handed a £10m tax windfall and granted a significant increase in VAT relief on building repairs reports the Independent.
Religious leaders welcomed the decision to allow them to reclaim VAT on refurbishment at the full rate of 17.5 per cent, up from 12.5 per cent.
The concession, which applies only to listed buildings, will be in place from now until March 2006, the Treasury said.
A spokesman for the Church of England said it spends £130m a year on repairs to its 16,000 buildings, 13,000 of which are listed. He added: “We are very grateful for the relief … which is of enormous help to the church, which is the major owner of listed buildings in England.”
Neville Nagler, director general of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said: “We welcome this measure in so far as it makes a practical difference to listed synagogues throughout the country.”
The Committee for Patrimony of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, which manages historic Catholic churches, said: “In England and Wales there are 656 listed Catholic churches and chapels, and so the Chancellor’s announcement should make a considerable difference. The churches are not just important records of the past, but also witnesses to a living tradition.”