Giving shares

By giving shares to the NSPCC it is possible to make a substantial tax saving, not only on income tax but on capital gains tax as well.

Income tax relief

Tax relief is available to UK taxpayers donating shares . Donors can claim Income Tax relief equal to the market value of the shares on the day the gift is made.

This means that a higher rate taxpayer making gift of £10,000 worth of shares to a registered charity, will receive income tax relief of 40 per cent of the full value, i.e. £4,000. In order to make these savings all you need to do is:

• give the shares to a registered charity
• claim the tax relief on your tax return
• have paid the amount of tax deducted by the end of the tax year in which the gift is given, (in other words the gift cannot give rise to a tax credit).

Capital gains tax relief

In addition to income tax relief there is also relief from capital gains tax, which means that in the hands of the NSPCC, the gift is worth more than if you had sold shares yourself. The difference depends on how much capital gains tax you would have paid.

How to give with shares

Gifts of shares can be transferred to the NSPCC either by completing a Crest Transfer form for each share holding and returning it to us together with the appropriate share certificate(s) or electronically if your shares are held by brokers under the Crest system

If you are unsure as to the value of your shares, you may want to consider sending them to Sharegift. This is a charitable organisation specialising in accepting small numbers of shares with low values, which would normally mean that they would not be economic to be sold. They aggregate the shares and then sell them distributing the funds to charity.

For further information or assistance, please contact our Supporter Care team on 020 7825 2505; by post to: 42 Curtain Road, London, EC2A 3NH; by email: supportercare@nspcc.org.uk  

Or contact Sharegift, 17 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AH.