An appeal from The Kent Wildlife Trust
06 July 2010
Kent Wildlife Trust manages over 7,500 acres of land across Kent. About half of this is land we manage on long lease, the other half is owned by the Trust either by people giving us land or through acquisition thanks to the generosity of our members, individuals, charitable trust and public funding sources. These latter public sources of funds are becoming increasingly difficult to get and we would like to develop a network of individuals who would be happy to be contacted with a view to them financially contributing to an acquisition should a piece of land come onto the market. Alternatively they may be interested in purchasing the land themselves and leasing it back to us to manage for the benefit of wildlife.
The idea is that we ask people now, get them interested in the scheme and when we need to approach them they are already aware of what we are asking for.
How to help
There are three options:
- a straight financial donation to the Trust for us to purchase the land directly; or
- for an individual to buy the land themselves and to lease it to the Trust for a suitably long period, ideally 25 years but at least 10 years, for the Trust to manage it for the benefit of wildlife.
- land is bought by an individual in order to secure it and the Trust will then have more time to raise the necessary funds to buy it from that individual.
The tax benefits
In summary, the following tax reliefs apply to all three options above, whether it is a lease arrangement, direct donation or a short term “loan”.
- Exemption from inheritance tax
- No capital gain/loss (even if gift made in foreign currency)
- Cash amount treated as paid net of basic rate tax
- Charity can reclaim basic rate tax
- Additional income tax relief for higher rate taxpayers so that the donor will be treated as if he had already paid tax on the gift at the basic rate, and he is therefore entitled to claim a tax credit in respect of the higher rate.
The Trust is extremely grateful to Warners as one of our corporate members for helping us to promote this scheme. We believe that there will be people in Kent who would enjoy having an interest in land that we are managing for wildlife and it is a matter of us finding out who these people are.
If you would like to know more about Kent Wildlife Trust, the scheme or the specific tax benefits please contact Kirsty Wood on 01732 770660 or k.wood@warners-solicitors.co.uk
