Posted on 26th January 2012
David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband have all committed to support Legacy10, a campaign to encourage people to give 10% of their estate to charity.
The campaign was launched last November and has attracted support from philanthropists and public figures including BMI former chair Michael Bishop, TV presenter Martyn Lewis, Virgin chair Richard Branson, Innocent co-founder Richard Reed and artist Tracey Emin.
A tax incentive to help prompt people to join the campaign is being introduced from April. Any estate which leaves at least 10% (of its taxable wealth) to a charitable cause will be able to take advantage of a reduced rate in inheritance tax, from its current level of 40% down to 36%. However, a Populus poll commissioned by Legacy10 found that over 80% of people were unaware of these forthcoming changes.
As an illustration of how it will work, if someone has a £1m estate, the standard rate of inheritance tax will reduce it to £675,000. If they leave 10% of this as a legacy, a charity will receive £67,500. The rest of their estate will then only be taxed at 36% rather than 40%. The net result means the estate’s beneficiary loses £16,200 but the charity gains £67,500.
Legacy10 founder and PR guru Roland Rudd says: “The appeal of Legacy10 is its simplicity. We are asking people to make a contribution to their favourite cultural or charitable cause in their will, the benefit to that cause will be four times bigger than the small loss to the donor. I am so pleased that all of our main political leaders have not only chosen to support Legacy10 but have also made a personal commitment to change their wills to make the pledge.”
One of the aims of Legacy10 is to encourage the 74% of people who make a charitable donation in their life time to leave a gift in their will – currently only 7% of people do this.
