Chelmsford County High School for Girls

The Capital Fundraising Group

How can you help?

The School is a charity and has set up a separate charitable company to raise funds for capital developments. It is possible therefore, to reclaim tax on donations from taxpayers and increase their value by 28%. We know not all parents are in a position to give large sums and we want to encourage everyone to be involved if they wish to help. There is a range of ways to give:

Covenants

This spreads your commitment (over the lifetime of your daughter's education at CCHS) and enables modest regular donations to build up to a very significant sum by the end of the 7 years. We hope that this will be the favoured means of giving for most parents. Covenanting the payment assures future income and allows the charitable company to raise loans to finance early completion of the projects secure in the knowledge that the future covenanted income stream will repay the loans.

Single Donations

This is a good way of giving for those whose incomes may fluctuate and prefer not to commit to a regular sum over 7 years, and tax can still be reclaimed.

Give As You Earn

Many companies enable employees to give to charities by deducting a regular sum from their salary before tax - and passing over the gross payment to the charity. Some companies also add further incentives by making their own contribution to the employee's chosen charity. The Chancellor is trying to encourage such schemes and will add 10% to the value of GAYE donations.

Company Gifts

If you are in a position to give via a company you own, or encourage your employer to give, Company gifts are expenses which can be charged against profit before calculation of corporation tax. Many companies operate schemes whereby employees can nominate a charity for a company donation.

Many companies offer to "match funds" whereby they will provide a donation to the charity of choice of their employee for the same amount donated by that employee.

Higher rate taxpayers are able to claim tax relief on the difference between the basic rate and the higher rate of income tax on the gross value of charitable covenants. In effect it means that the real cost of a donation is considerably reduced for higher rate tax payers - or alternatively that they can give more for the same real cost! This tax relief is claimed through the Annual Tax Return.