Memorandum submitted by Sir Nicholas Goodison
Thank you for your letter and for sending me
the evidence from the Minister. There are some interesting comments
in it, not least his response to Philip Davies's reminder of the
Labour Party's Manifesto commitment to "explore further ways
to encourage philanthropy to boost the quality of our public art
collections."
You ask me about my meeting at the Treasury
at the end of January. I saw Stewart Wood, one of the Chancellor's
advisors, and two officials, Sophia Oliver (Head of Charity Tax)
and Chris Liu (Head of Personal Capital Taxes). It was clear from
the conversation that they were interested in finding ways of
encouraging philanthropy, which I was pleased to know. I said
that I would wholeheartedly support efforts in this direction.
They told me that they have commissioned research into the effects
of tax concessions on peoples' urge to give. They plan discussions
after the completion of their research, and I hope that I shall
be invited to take part.
But there was no enthusiasm for the proposals
in my Review for tax concessions on gifts of works of art and
culture. They talked about "difficulties around opening up
the tax relief and risks associated with that" and said that
"opportunities to do more through the tax system were extremely
limited". They also said that they had had trouble with valuations
of shares following the introduction of tax inducements for giving
shares and property—although this is of course irrelevant
to my proposals because I put forward a watertight system for
evaluating gifts of works of art and culture.
They were entirely negative on my proposals
for reforming Acceptance in Lieu and Conditional Exemption. There
were no new arguments on these. Nor does there appear to any appetite
for the administrative reforms relating to the Capital Taxes"
Office's administration of Conditional Exemption etc.
So I am still on the ground, hoping to find
ways of achieving lift-off, but with no early prospect of fulfillment.
It is encouraging that the Treasury is still thinking of ways
to encourage philanthropy generally, but no hint that the "quality
of our public art collections" has any special place in this.
It remains true that I have never received any
sort of ministerial response to my Review, but at least there
is now some contact with officials.
April 2007
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