From 6 April 2012 anyone leaving 10 per cent of their estate to charity can reap the benefit of reduced inheritance tax from 40 per cent to 36 per cent.
Underpinning the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s (DCMS) ‘10 point philanthropy’ plan announced last year, the independent ‘Legacy10’ campaign’ will raise awareness of this tax change to promote a higher level of giving.
Of all the ten points put forward this is the one most helpful to the heritage charities – attractive to the rich and not so rich, and reaching the local as well as the big national institutions. Chancellor George Osborne, speaking at the launch on Wednesday evening, said he hoped that small local arts groups and museums would benefit from the change.
Whilst 74 per cent of us support a charity in our lifetime, one in three people in the UK die intestate and only 7 per cent leave a gift in their will. Legacy10 will ask individuals across the UK to pledge 10 per cent of their estate to charity. Ambassadors include Charles Dunstone of the Carphone Warehouse, Jacob Rothschild, Sir Richard Branson and Richard Reed of Innocent Drinks
Further details: legacy10.com
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