Moral Dilemma: Playing the Gift-Aid System

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- chris
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Moral Dilemma: Playing the Gift-Aid System
OP - August 03, 2012, 09:07 PM

A moral dilemma: In the UK, tax payers can select to "Gift Aid" donations to registered charities. This means that the charity can reclaim the basic rate tax from HM Revenue & Customs on its 'gross' equivalent. So for example, if you give £10 using Gift Aid the charity can reclaim an additional £2.50 to bring the total donation to £12.50. If you're not an income tax payer because, for example, you're unemployed or a student, you cannot select to "Gift Aid" your donations.

The question: is it morally okay to ask tax payers to make donations on your behalf and then give them the cash, thereby increasing the amount the charity receives as it enables them to reclaim the Gift Aid amount? I've done it several times for charities I think are important; what are your views?
- Blade Gunner
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Re: Moral Dilemma: Playing the Gift-Aid System
Reply #1 - August 03, 2012, 09:20 PM

may the lord have mercy on your soul

''we are morally and philisophically in the best position to win the league'' - Arsene Wenger
- chris
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Re: Moral Dilemma: Playing the Gift-Aid System
Reply #2 - August 03, 2012, 10:28 PM

Damn it, I want advice not redemption!
- YOLO
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Re: Moral Dilemma: Playing the Gift-Aid System
Reply #3 - August 03, 2012, 10:34 PM

I would say no, the money you take away from the government might've been used to provide unemployment benefits or spent in research. Then again it might've been blown on defense spending, but still.

Quote from: King Tut on December 09, 2012, 06:28 PM
Yeah an I am super ugly, I can't even beat my chest am too skinny and when I roaaar to attract women, they laugh at me, because it sounds like a girl screaming. I can't even attract any bitches!
- chris
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Re: Moral Dilemma: Playing the Gift-Aid System
Reply #4 - August 03, 2012, 10:48 PM

I should add a little context. I'm raising money for a charity providing aid in Syria. For me, the recipients of the money are almost definitely more in need than British citizens. So if it were my choice, I'd rather the money went there. I'm using the end to justifying the means, so I'm not too fussed by your point of contention shilakijawani. Is it a choice I have any moral right to make though. Ultimately it's stealing from the relatively rich to give to the relatively poor. But it's still sort of stealing, isn't it. Urgh.
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Re: Moral Dilemma: Playing the Gift-Aid System
Reply #5 - August 03, 2012, 10:54 PM

The poor are poor in the end, whether in England or somewhere else. But in Syria there's a war going on and their citizens are definitely in worse shape at the moment, so for this particular case I would say yes, what you're doing seems ethical.

Quote from: King Tut on December 09, 2012, 06:28 PM
Yeah an I am super ugly, I can't even beat my chest am too skinny and when I roaaar to attract women, they laugh at me, because it sounds like a girl screaming. I can't even attract any bitches!
- Ishina
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Re: Moral Dilemma: Playing the Gift-Aid System
Reply #6 - August 04, 2012, 02:28 AM

DO IT MORE. And tell everyone else to do the same.

Charities lose out on so much potential Gift Aid because so many people don't even know Gift Aid exists or forget to tick the Gift Aid box. So many UK donations are not Gift Aid 'enabled'. Pretty much all UK donations could have been.

All you'd be doing here is offsetting that colossal loss of potential earnings.

Too fucking busy, and vice versa.
- chris
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Re: Moral Dilemma: Playing the Gift-Aid System
Reply #7 - August 05, 2012, 10:35 AM

^Thanks! *Chris potters off with the approval he was looking for*
- David
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Re: Moral Dilemma: Playing the Gift-Aid System
Reply #8 - August 05, 2012, 10:47 AM

Talking about yourself in the third person already? Watch out.
- chris
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Re: Moral Dilemma: Playing the Gift-Aid System
Reply #9 - August 05, 2012, 10:49 AM

We care not for your warnings of poor mental health.
- David
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Re: Moral Dilemma: Playing the Gift-Aid System
Reply #10 - August 05, 2012, 11:47 AM

I was thinking more delusions of grandeur than mental health.

(And I was joking too.)
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