Giving to charity & saving paying tAX

squaredoggy1

We have a rental property which we will earn a few thousand £ profit in tax year 09/10. I worked till December 09 and then stopped work, my wife still works. The question is as we will have to pay the tax man a few hundred pounds can we give any of this to charity to avoid paying some or all of the tax due on our rental profit and can we do this through our self assesment form - looked at the gov web site but totally confused.:(

jennifernil

If you are a 40% taxpayer, giving to charity using gift aid will extend your basic rate band. You will save some tax, but you will have to hand over the income, so you will end up with less.

If you wish to give to charity anyway, then using gift aid will increase the amount the charity receives.

kalaika

In short, no you can't do what you propose.

In the current tax year you can use Gift Aid so that any donations you make to charity may save you some tax if you are a higher rate taxpayer, and this may be able to be carried back to the 09/10 year.