Yesterday, saw the launch of Legacy10 – a nationwide drive to increase the number of people in the UK who leave money to charity in their wills. The goal of Legacy10 is to encourage a change in the way we in the UK regard legacy giving, and make it the norm for people to leave at least 10% of their wealth to good causes. High Net worth individuals such as Sir Richard Branson, Paul Myners and Sir Keith Mills have already committed to the cause and Richard Reed (founder of Innocent Drinks) has become a Pledge ambassador for the campaign.
The campaign comes at a crucial time, with only 20% (of the 2000 who were surveyed) being aware of the impending changes to inheritance tax in April 2012. For those who aren’t aware – inheritance tax will be reduced from 40% -36% for those who give at least 10% of their legacy to charity. Whilst this is a great initiative and I give my full endorsement to the campaign – I feel that much more of an incentive needs to be offred if we are to become a nation of donors. For me the taxbreak isn’t nearly high enough to incentivise those of us who aren’t (yet) high net worths or who aren’t ‘givers’ to commit 10% to charity. Perhaps a 12-15% reduction in inheritance tax to those who donate 10% to charity could have made the difference? Most People work hard to secure some ‘legacy’ for their families and if legacy giving to charity is to become the norm, a little extra incentive could make all the difference to becoming a nation of givers, rather then being a privilege only for the rich…
