Chapter BIM24794

Published date22 November 2013
Record NumberBIM24794

S529 Income Tax Act 2007, S483 Corporation Tax Act 2010

The issue of fund raising by a local body was considered by the courts in the case of British Legion, Peterhead Branch, Remembrance and Welcome Home Fund v CIR [1953] 35TC509 - see BIM24475. The courts found that the fund raising activities in that case amounted to a trade - the activities being carried out on a significant scale in a manner akin to a commercial activity. The courts allowed a deduction for the costs that would have been incurred had not local volunteers given freely of their time and services in delivering the fund raising activities.

There is however an exemption for the profits of certain fund-raising events undertaken by charities and voluntary organisations. In any case where the exemption applies, you should not assess the profits arising to a charity or voluntary organisation (for example, a local committee or Round Table) from activities such as the occasional sale of goods from shops or stalls, the running of a donkey derby, fireworks displays, carnivals and other events even where the activities amount to trading.

There are two conditions that a charity or voluntary organisation must satisfy for tax exemption to apply to trade profits arising from the holding of a fund-raising event for charity:

  1. the event must be of a kind that falls within the exemption from VAT under Group 12 of Sch 9 Value Added Tax Act 1994; and
  2. the profits must be transferred to a charity or otherwise applied for charitable purposes.

The VAT exemption in (a) above covers events organised by charities and certain non-profit making bodies for charitable purposes or exclusively for the body’s own benefit:

  • whose primary purpose is...

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