Wiggins

bompington

iainf72 and others wrote:

...tax benefits...

Can anyone explain to me how you can wind up with more money overall by giving it away to charity? Not denying that it's possible, but all the schemes I know of (e.g. ordinary payroll giving) just mean that tax is refunded on money you give away - you certainly don't wind up richer because of it.

So if anyone knows how to get richer by giving money away, I'm sure we'd all be interested to know ;-)

Pross

BikingBernie wrote:

Yellow Peril wrote:

Cav has done something similar over here but on a less grandious scale. At a recent sport awards he gave some cash to a couple of Olympic hopeful swimmers. He didn't appear to make a fuss about it all and it was quite well received.

He's a good lad.

See it works, even when this is the 'alternate reality'...

I know you like that photo as it supports your opinion of Cav but wasn't the 'salute' aimed at some critics in the media who criticised his form? If so, I'd say it was warranted like Nasser Hussain's signal to the press box a few years back.

inkyfingers

iainf72 wrote:

If it's a foundation that gets in money and then passes it on to other org's, that's double admin costs, isn't it?

I wonder if there are any tax benefits in the UK? I've got no problem with someone avoiding tax at all, I'm just curious if it's the case.

Agree on your first point.

Regarding the tax, there would be tax advantages if he was putting his own money in, but can't see why it would be any better doing it via your own foundation, rather than just giving to an existing charity (I'm not an accountant, so could be wrong).

inkyfingers

bompington wrote:

iainf72 and others wrote:

...tax benefits...

Can anyone explain to me how you can wind up with more money overall by giving it away to charity? Not denying that it's possible, but all the schemes I know of (e.g. ordinary payroll giving) just mean that tax is refunded on money you give away - you certainly don't wind up richer because of it.

So if anyone knows how to get richer by giving money away, I'm sure we'd all be interested to know ;-)

You don't get richer exactly, but the tax relief means that the charity ends up with more money than it actually cost you.

Basic idea is as follows (as I understand it):

As a top rate taxpayer, If you give £1 million to charity you will get tax relief of circa £300,000 so the donation only actually costs you £700,000. In addition the charity can claim gift aid (effectively the basic rate you paid on the money that you are donating) which will give them an additional £200,000. Thus the charity has £1.2 million to spend but it's only cost you £700,000.

Pross

iainf72 wrote:

If it's a foundation that gets in money and then passes it on to other org's, that's double admin costs, isn't it?

I wonder if there are any tax benefits in the UK? I've got no problem with someone avoiding tax at all, I'm just curious if it's the case.

I assume the idea is that his 'name' helps attract money that would not otherwise be given. By setting up a foundation he can raise money that gets split between numerous charities as it is difficult to be a patron of all the charities that ask you. In my limited experience it is often a case that charities apply to foundations for money such as a teenage cancer charity requesting funds to buy a MRI scanner.

Pross

Inkfingers, I thought you could only do gift aid if you didn't claim tax relief on the donation i.e. the 'taxman' only pays out once?

iainf72

I wonder if he can expense things under the guise of fundraising? Again, before anyone gets all worked up about it, I'm not saying there is anything wrong with it.

Is he am employee of the foundation?

inkyfingers

Pross wrote:

Inkfingers, I thought you could only do gift aid if you didn't claim tax relief on the donation i.e. the 'taxman' only pays out once?

The gift aid part covers the basic rate tax element and the tax relief for higher earners covers the difference between the basic rate and your top rate of income tax (either another 20% or 30% tax, depending on your salary). The net effect is that HMRC allow the total amount of tax that you have paid on that part of your income to be donated to the charity.

More information here: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/individuals/giving/gift-aid.htm

Disclaimer: I'm not an accountant, just somebody with an interest in such matters. If you are a higher rate taxpayer looking to make a large donation to charity I strongly recommend you discuss it with your accountant or tax advisor

tailwindhome

There is also the possibility that he's a decent enough fella and wants to put a bit back. No?

inkyfingers

iainf72 wrote:

I wonder if he can expense things under the guise of fundraising? Again, before anyone gets all worked up about it, I'm not saying there is anything wrong with it.

Is he am employee of the foundation?

Any expenses claimed would need to have been incurred "wholly, exclusively and necessarily" in his charitable duties or he'd be seriously pushing his luck with HMRC.

You'd have to find out from the organisation if he's an employee, would be very surprised if he was planning to draw any salary though, unless he's planning on giving up his job as a full time bike racer to become a full time fundraiser.

inkyfingers

TailWindHome wrote:

There is also the possibility that he's a decent enough fella and wants to put a bit back. No?

Absolutely, i'm not saying he's not, just answering questions posed about the tax implications.

knedlicky

Why does it have to have an over-long blurb about Wiggins and all his achievements (not to mention his “silky smooth riding style“!) as well as a large photo of Mr.Cool himself? And lounging on a Vespa – a great way to ‘to encourage people to exercise’!

Apart from the lack of detail about what the foundation is all about and how they are going to set about their goals (I find it all very waffley) and also lack of detail about what Wiggins' involvement actually is, it’s a very poor PR approach unless you want people to look similarly cool lounging on whatever they can find.

In contrast, the Friends of Jose Carreras International Leukemia Foundation website has no text at all about Carreras’ career and achievements and only a few small manky pictures of him. The website is about the foundation and its aims, not the ‘personality’ behind it.

Wiggins will have to get himself a larger size helmet.

andyp

Maybe he wants a private jet so he can nip home from Tenerife to read the kids a bedtime story every night.

ratsbeyfus

bompington wrote:

iainf72 and others wrote:

...tax benefits...

...
So if anyone knows how to get richer by giving money away, I'm sure we'd all be interested to know ;-)

I have a pamphlet that can explain this to you very simply. Just send £50 to:
RATSBEYFUS
c/o BIKE RADAR

etc, etc.

mroli

The Foundation that we set up in memory of my son makes charitable donations to charities who apply to us for funding for specific projects. We thought long and hard about setting up a charity and decided to do so for the following reasons:

1) We have very low admin/overhead costs (a Mr Website rental, our justgiving rental etc) These are all met by me.
2) We are more motivated in running our Foundation, it being in the name of our son.
3) We wanted our son's name to live on
4) If people are doing challenges for us (and when I am doing so), it is a motivator to do things.
5) We control our charity and decide what it does and what projects to support which is very important to us.
6) We understood the point about admin costs etc and this is one of the reasons we set up a charity that supports specific projects - we can turn round to our supporters and say "look this is what we did".

Setting up a charity is a relatively simple operation. Lots of admin involved (getting registered for tax, with the charity comission, filling in accounts, reports etc etc), but nothing too complex.

There are distinct tax benefits to donating to a charity - My donation to the charity goes in as a "pre-tax" value - thus giving a large uplift to the charity, but this does not go to me (or any other donor).

No-one apart from the charities we support takes money out of the charity.

I want to see more details, but have no problem with Brad using his name/achievements to publicise what he is trying to do - public awareness is a large part of the battle that all charities face.

I would doubt very much that Brad Wiggins needs to expense his sandwiches and travel to his charity and that this is the reason why he has set one up!!!!

thamacdaddy

I saw this today but kept criticism to myself. I work in the design industry on quite high profile sites and projects, so to see such a poor site, bad content strategy etc it just looks counter productive.

I hope this was free services from the web company. I can't believe he has signed that off, the logo is another level, perhaps it doesn't matter in the grand scheme.

I say overall though it's pretty harsh people slate this stuff. I have offered help for free for good causes especially in design services etc and it has nothing to do with PR but more to give a little back (I admit though I don't have to worry about big PR work or tax breaks). Now it may well be tax related but either way as long as there are people that benefit from that why is it a bad thing?