Sunday, September 04, 2005

Special notice for American expats in Britain re Katrina relief

If you are an American (or anyone actually) living and paying taxes in UK, you can give directly to the Katrina relief through a British based charity (i.e. any charity with a British office as most large international charities will have) and this will qualify for the Gift Aid programme.

That means that for every pound you give, 28 pence (that's your basic rate income tax) will be added on top from the UK government up to the amount of income tax you pay in this tax year. For example, we gave £100 to the Salvation Army- that means they get an extra £28 from the UK Treasury, which in 'real money' is nearly 50 bucks.

I don't have a full list of British charities doing this, but I know for certain that you can do this through the Salvation Army. Just make sure that you hit "UK" as your country of residence and make sure that you see a Gift Aid option on the site and make sure that you tick it. (BTW, they will cross check your address, so don't anyone else try this).

Update:

The Red Cross UK now has Gift Aid, too for specific Katrina relief. Follow the previous link to make sure your donation qualifies for Gift Aid. Again, make sure that you put your country of residence as the UK and don't follow the links off the US website (tempting as that may be).

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