VAT rise will cost Scottish charities £14 million

Martin Sime, Chief Executive of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations said:
“The rise in VAT to 20 per cent will hit the voluntary sector in Scotland hard.  The Charity Tax Group has estimated that the rise could cost the sector as much as £14 million a year at a time when governments in both Holyrood and Westminster are asking us to do more and when income from other sources is already down.  
If the Government wants to practice what it preaches and create the ‘big society’, then what it needs to do now is to remove bureaucratic barriers around VAT that stop our sector from fulfilling its potential and to create opportunities for our sector to do more to create jobs and support the most vulnerable in our society.”

Notes to editors:

The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations is the national body representing the interests of charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises.  The Scottish voluntary sector turns over £4.4 billion a year and employs 137,000 people in over 45,000 organisations.  For more on SCVO see www.scvo.org.uk

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Sarah Beattie-Smith, Communications Officer
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