Looking after business, the business page column from the Carmarthen Journal
By Ann Thomas, senior consultant with Clay Shaw Butler, chartered accountants and business consultants of Carmarthen
They say that charity begins at home and Ive got the aches and pains to prove it!
Currently, I am in training for a marathon Paris to Swansea bike ride to raise cash for the Maggies cancer centre in Swansea.
Getting ready for a 400-mile marathon means you have to spend hours in the saddle getting fit.
Take the aches and pains out of the equation and you can actually get some thinking done on those practice rides. For example, I was thinking about how to make tax-effective gifts.
You can get tax relief on gifts to UK charities if you give:

• under Gift Aid
• through a Payroll Giving scheme, run by your employer, or
• by making a gift of certain shares or land.

In subsequent columns, Ill look at other issues, but, for now, lets concentrate on Gift Aid.
If you pay tax, Gift Aid is a scheme by which you can give a sum of money to charity and the charity can normally reclaim basic rate tax on your gift from the taxman, HMRC.
That increases the value of the gift you make to the charity. So for example, if you gave 10 using Gift Aid in 2011/12 that gift was worth 12.50 to the charity.
You can give any amount, large or small, regular or one-off.
If you do not pay tax, you should not use Gift Aid.
How does a gift qualify for Gift Aid? There are three main conditions. You must:

• make a declaration to the charity that you want your gift to be treated as a Gift Aid donation
• pay at least as much tax as the charities will reclaim on your gifts in the tax year in which you make them (tax credits on dividend income will count towards the tax paid)
• not receive excessive benefits in return for your gift.

You should keep a record of payments made under Gift Aid for each tax year. The time limit for claiming tax relief on Gift Aid donations is four years. This time limit applies to the charity and the individual making the gift.
If you would like to help a charity financially, it makes sense to do this in a tax efficient way. We can provide assistance in determining this for you. Please contact us for more detailed advice.
The team at Clay Shaw Butler can be contacted on 01267 228500 or through the website at www.clayshawbutler.com
If you want to sponsor Ann on her bike ride, see the JustGiving website http://www.justgiving.com/Ann-Thomas27
Or if you want to sponsor Ann directly, call her at Clay Shaw Butler on 01267 228 500 Email - AnnThomas@clayshawbutler.com