Call to scrap tax relief cap on charitable donations

LEADING figures from some of Scotland’s most famous academic and artistic institutions have called on the UK government to scrap its tax relief cap on charitable donations.

The principals of five Scottish universities, plus Gordon Rintoul, director of the National Museums Scotland, and John Leighton, director-general of the National Galleries of Scotland, are among the signatories to a letter urging ministers to abandon the proposal.

Their letter, addressed to the Scottish Secretary Michael Moore, claims that the new tax regime, introduced in Chancellor George Osborne’s Budget, is “incompatible” with Prime Minister David Cameron’s vision for a big society.

They say: “With around 50 per cent of the £11bn donated to charities in the UK each year coming from just 8 per cent of donors, the new rules will have a disproportionate effect.”