Get Your Own Back on The Taxman

This week's budget won't have pleased many people with a rise in VAT to 20% from next January and deep cuts in welfare benefits and public expenditure. Apparently the average family will be around £400 worse off as a consequence.

However the tax man has certainly made me smile this week by paying a nice fat cheque into our charity bank account - just over £3079 in Gift Aid tax relief on donations made to the charity by our supporters and child sponsors. That will certainly hep our budget as we prepare to send a 40ft ships container of medical aid and tools to the Philippines later this year.

So the moral of this story is that if you give to charity and are a UK tax payer please sign a gift aid declaration. Until April 2011 it is worth an extra 28% to the charities you support and won't cost you a penny. Somehow paying tax doesn't seem quite so bad if you can redirect some of that tax back to causes you believe in. It feels like you're getting your own back on the tax man!

If you support this charity you can download a gift aid declaration here.