We received a petition asking:
“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to give VAT exemptions to the Mountain Rescue Service on all of their spending.”
Details of Petition:
“This petition is aimed ensuring the mountain rescue service is exempt from VAT on all of their equipment and spending as they provide a service that would otherwise be very costly to the Government. This service should mirror the Lifeboat service and other voluntary services.”
· Read the petition
· Petitions homepage
Read the Government’s response
Thank you for your e-petition.
The Government fully appreciates the valuable work of mountain rescue and other rescue charities.
There are a number of VAT reliefs available to charities providing rescue and first aid services, including VAT zero-rating for certain specialist telecommunications, aural, visual, light enhancing or heat detecting equipment. Such charities are also able to buy VAT free, medicines, medical equipment, ambulances and certain vehicles designed to carry disabled people. These reliefs apply equally to all rescue charities. Zero-rating also applies to the supply, repair and maintenance of lifeboats and lifeboat equipment used by charities for sea rescue.
Our VAT agreements with our European partners, signed by successive governments, mean that it is not now possible to extend the scope of the zero rates available to charities beyond those permitted by EU VAT legislation.
We have, however, focused on areas where we can provide targeted support for charities. To promote charitable giving, we have made changes to Gift Aid, which have achieved a considerable increase in the number of charities and donors using the scheme, and taken measures to increase access to payroll giving.
Under the Gift Aid scheme taxpayers can make a donation of a sum of money to charity, and the charity can then reclaim from HM Revenue and Customs an additional 28p from every £1 donated. In 2007-8 the Government repaid £898 million to charities under the scheme.
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