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With Jaye Warren I recently spent a Friday morning combining church watch with counting the assorted miscellany of foreign coins donated to the church as the euro beckons for 2002. If nothing else we learnt what a well travelled lot members of our congregation must be! As well as washers, tokens, florins, shillings, farthings, pennies and half-pennies both old and decimal the many bags of mixed coin included francs, pesetas, deutschmarks, US and Australian dollars but surprisingly few escudos from Portugal. In addition our geography lesson, and in some cases a history lesson too, took us to Argentina, Austria, Belgian Congo, Belgium, Borneo, Canada, Ceylon, Channel Islands, Denmark, East Africa, Eire, Figi, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Malaya, Malta, Netherlands, Palestine, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, Turkey and Venezuela. It all seemed such a good idea at the time, an easy way to raise money - no problem with notes but we soon found out the pitfalls of trying to exchange coin except for France, Spain and non-european countries or those in Europe outside the EEC. So far we have banked £39 as the result of our labours and any coin we cannot redeem will be given to other appropriate charities for whom special arrangements apply. The church charity shop was a resounding success and raised £2,084.75 in just one week, making all the hard work put in by so many people worthwhile. It is amazing what people will buy and thank goodness they did! Our cheque from the taxman for the July to September quarter under the gift aid scheme was our largest yet at £1,948.55 so please keep thinking about pink envelopes. Votive candle sales totalled £75.20 and income from aluminium cans and notelets £16.10. The Trafalgar Day service collection was £95.49 and on Remembrance Day £122.94, half of which will be sent to the Royal British Legion. The Wednesday coffee morning charity funds have given a further £25 to Christian Aid, £25 to the Church Army, £50 to RUKBA and earmarked £50 for the Servers' Alb fund. The retiring collection for the Church Army during part of October raised £75.41. In addition to the £364.71 already sent to Christian Aid, another £40 was raised by the coffee morning at the Vicarage on November 3rd plus a donation received value £6.40. The inter-church Quiz Night on October 13th raised £130.31 for the Rowans Hospice. On the debit side, photocopier paper cost £135, part payment of faculty fees £109, votive candles £119, Church copyright licence to reproduce hymn words £88 and expert attention to trees in the churchyard £795. As we approach the end of the year my special thanks are due to Jaye Warren for her unstinting help with counting and banking monies with me and also to the magazine committee members who turn my hard written scribble into a suitable format for reproduction in this magazine. With best wishes to everyone at St George's for a Happy Christmas. Linda Wainwright, Hon. Treasurer to the PCC Payroll Giving Gift Aid replaced covenanting, and has made it a lot easier for us to reclaim tax on many additional casual donations which, before, were just received with thanks. The next stage is for us to really discover payroll giving. Many people think that this method of giving does not apply to them because they are retired, but anyone receiving a taxed income/pension may also be able to undertake payroll giving. First what are the benefits. Gifts are deducted from earnings or pensions before they are taxed so relief is given at the highest rate of tax. This means that, if you want to give the church £100 from your gross salary/pension, and are a basic rate taxpayer paying tax at 22%, it will only cost you £78 to make the donation. Also the Government boosts any payroll giving by 10% and will continue to do so until 2003. For every £10 given via payroll giving, the church will receive £11. Supposing everyone was able to do it; our income would go up by 10% overnight! Another benefit is that the amount passed to the church on your behalf will already have the tax added, eliminating the need for the church to administer the reclaim of the tax, and also easing our cash flow situation. Certainly all those in employment should already be giving via their payroll if their company operates this form of giving. If you think that you may also be eligible for payroll giving, you should write to your payroll/pension payer and ask if they subscribe to the scheme. If they do you should approach either Linda Wainwright or myself for further advice on the next step. But remember: 1. You do not have to be working to give your gift via the payroll, only in receipt of a taxed pension. 2. The church will receive an additional 10% at no cost to you. 3. The church will benefit its cash flow as your tax reclaim will already be included in the regular payment. 4. There is no cost to you and no effort from you. Tony Rice-Oxley |
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page last updated 7 DECEMBER 2001 |
