30 March 2012
The Church of England has today created an e-petition calling on
the Chancellor to bring back zero rate VAT to alterations to the
CofE's 12,500 listed churches. It follows the recent launch of a
consultation by HM Revenue & Customs on VAT charging to
approved alterations to listed buildings, which closes on 4 May
2012.
The e-petition can be signed online now at: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/32229
.
In a letter to the Chancellor, sent today, Anne Sloman, chair of
the Church Buildings Council, writes that a very large proportion
of the alterations to listed churches "are concerned with making
these buildings viable for use by the wide community… The
imposition of 20 per cent VAT on this work means in practice most
of it will simply stop… it seems that this VAT proposal was aimed
at householders and that the implications for the Church were not
fully understood."
The Bishop of London and the Second Church Estates Commissioner,
Tony Baldry MP, have also written letters to the Chancellor to
voice serious concerns about the proposed imposition of VAT on
alterations to listed buildings.
Notes
Forty-five per cent of England's Grade I listed buildings are
Church of England churches.
The consultation document VAT: Addressing Borderline
Anomalies, published on 21 March 2012, is available here: http://bit.ly/HmjpDV
The letters from the Bishop of London, Second Church Estates
Commissioner and Anne Sloman are available here:
http://www.churchofengland.org/media-centre/news/2012/03/statement-on-budget-2012-vat-to-be-charged-at-20-percent-on-alterations-to-listed-churches.aspx
This QR code, which links to the e-petition, is available
as a free
download for use on posters and websites:
