Charitible Giving

the government have announced they want people to actively give to charities more than they do already, one initiative is to give at the cash point or even while filling out tax returns. after massive cuts and raising taxes, my first thought was to fu@k off! i give to charity when i can afford it but i don't want it in my face everytime i try to take out a tenner. what is your opinion on this?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12085506

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcdtVD8X1-A

i give to charity when i can afford it but i don't want it in my face everytime i try to take out a tenner.[URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12085506"][/URL]

+1. I think it's pretty ridiculous really. How does this work anyway? Which charities would we be giving to?

Government does nothing to increase taxation for the super-wealthy or for big corporations, does nothing to redistribute wealth more evenly, massively cuts public services which affects the poor far more than it does the rich, then asks us to give to charity?

Fucking......................

I thought the previous lot were off their heads, but this new lot are just the same. In fact, this confirms that they must be living on different planet.

before I took redundancy was looking into payroll giving to a couple of charities, water aid, medicins sans frontiers, marie curie, etc. As you could do it and not pay tax on it. Now I'm freelance will have to look in and see if that can still occur. Feel everyone should give a percentage of their wages to charity, and it should be automated so you don't notice it, like putting money into a savings account. £20 a month £5 to each charity, not even the cost of a large round, do that for a year, it mounts up.
Obviously I never got round to it, but will set it up when I return.

To answer your question Rocks, government would be on firmer footing if they got the richer to give more, both forced taxation, and voluntarily, charitable giving, personally and professionally.

saw this article and it made me think that maybe those who have money do actually get it in terms of levelling the playing field and doing something positive with the money they have acquired.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/26/20-things-we-learned-in-2010?INTCMP=SRCH

point 5

5 Billionaires can be highly generous

In May, America's two wealthiest citizens, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, arranged three separate dinners with those who occupied the positions directly below them in the US rich list: Michael Bloomberg, George Soros, Oprah Winfrey and the rest.

One result was that Buffett and Gates went public in June with what they called the Giving Pledge, an appeal to the conscience of their fellow billionaires that now was the time to donate half their wealth to solving some of the world's problems. So far, 40 have signed up. Buffett had set the ball rolling by pledging 99% of his $70bn (£45.5bn) fortune to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

You can see how the Giving Pledge is developing at givingpledge.org and read letters from, among others, Michael Bloomberg, Paul Allen, Ted Turner and George Lucas. Bloomberg writes: "The reality of great wealth is that you can't spend it and you can't take it with you. For decades, I've been committed to giving away the vast majority of my wealth to causes that I'm passionate about. And so I am enthusiastically taking the Giving Pledge, and nearly all of my net worth will be given away in the years ahead."

Sceptics say charity and aid never transformed societies. Gates and Buffett, though, point to the fact that in a few short years of their targeted health policies they have eradicated polio from all but three countries; they now have their sights on malaria. You can only hope the Giving Pledge proves contagious.