Is giving to charity just another form of taxation?

Bob63

An interesting poser.

My personal answer to this is that charities can run things with much lower management overheads than if the government were to do it. A good example is my own charity Freewheelers, which provides the NHS in Bath/Bristol/Somerset with an out-of-hours emergency courier service for the transport of drugs/blood/samples/notes/equipment. We cost the public £20K/year in donations, VAT refunds and gift-aid rebates. If we didn't exist they would have to spend at least £60K/year in taxis. However, because we are a service that uses blue lights and sirens to enable us to respond in life threatening situations, we can do things that no taxi can do. Plus we guarantee to be available at 11:00pm on a Friday evening - try getting a taxi at that time! If the NHS were to setup its own equivalent service with 3 bikes, full time riders, dispatchers and the obligatory NHS administrators, we have come up with a pretty accurate calculation that the actual cost would be closer to £300K.

We have volunteers willing to give up their time and we have members of the public and organisations willing to support us. Is it a tax on the public? Probably, but £20K is a lot better value than £300K.

Mike