Charity tax row: Oxbridge joins revolt

Oxford, Cambridge and other universities have joined the growing disquiet over government plans to curb tax breaks on charitable donations. The Oxford and Cambridge vice-chancellors wrote privately to Chancellor George Osborne saying his plans risked undermining the culture of university philanthropy.

UK universities, which raised some £560m from charitable gifts last year, want him to rethink.  Ministers want to stop tax avoidance. Mr Osborne says he is shocked by the scale of legal tax avoidance by multi-millionaires. Nicola Dandridge Universities UK chief executive

Under current rules, higher-rate taxpayers can donate unlimited amounts of money to charity and offset it against their tax bill to effectively bring the amount of tax they pay down, sometimes to zero.

But from 2013, uncapped tax reliefs - including those on charitable donations - are to be capped at £50,000 or 25% of a person's income, whichever is higher.

Opposition to the plans has been gathering pace. On Thursday, Business Secretary Vince Cable openly voiced concerns after hearing from universities first hand about how the changes could affect them.

And Oxford vice-chancellor Andrew Hamilton wrote a private letter to Mr Osborne pointing out how reliant the university was on charitable donations.

The leading university raised more than £1.25bn over the past eight years, with many of the gifts topping what would be the yearly £50,000 limit.

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