Do gifts attract income tax?

hoylus

Hi there,

i'm self employed, but in a charitable role where lots of donors give to me directly. Most of these donors are friends.

If these gifts are paid directly to me, are they be liable for income tax?

Thanks.

le_loup

hoylus wrote: »

i'm self employed, but in a charitable role where lots of donors give to me directly.

A bit more ... no, a lot more explanation of this sentence is needed.

notanewuser

hoylus wrote: »

Hi there,

i'm self employed, but in a charitable role where lots of donors give to me directly. Most of these donors are friends.

If these gifts are paid directly to me, are they be liable for income tax?

Thanks.

That sounds extremely dodgy.

magpiecottage

I see all sorts of other issues with this.

You need to have separate accounts for the charitable property, set up under a trust arrangement so that creditors cannot seize it in the event of personal insolvency.

The OP is risking being accused of fraud here.

heretolearn_2

I've got a feeling it's this situation.

You do some work for the charity and in return you are given 'gifts' of money directly.

On dodgy ground here. You are receiving an income in return for your work. Just calling it a 'gift' doesn't make it any different from any other earned income, so yes if this is the case you should be declaring it and paying tax.

A surprising number of my charity clients try to do this and we have to advise them that they are not complying with the law. We've also taken charities on when they have got into trouble with the HMRC over this exact situation and helped them appeal against all the penalties/back tax/interest the HMRC want. All we can do is try to reduce all this to a more reasonable level as the HMRC will estimate a wildly high figure, but these charities were in the wrong and had to pay up and sort themselves out.

It's pretty simple. Would you be receiving these financial 'gifts' even if you weren't working for the charity? No? then that money is payment for your work.

Genuine gifts are not taxable, but genuine gifts don't involve anything in return for them.