Can a farm be set up as charity?

[Chris F]

I spend a lot of time in the car and wondered this today. Is it possible, sensible, has anyone done it?

We often hear on TFF that there are very tight margins for farms, so does being a non-profit charity where you just take a salary offer any advantages? (feeding the world is often framed as a charitable exercise)

 

[delilah]

I spend a lot of time in the car and wondered this today. Is it possible, sensible, has anyone done it?

We often hear on TFF that there are very tight margins for farms, so does being a non-profit charity where you just take a salary offer any advantages? (feeding the world is often framed as a charitable exercise)

yes and no.
If you are a registered charity then you can't trade. So, Oxfam as an example, you have shops that trade, and they give their profits to a separate legal entity, the charity.
Alternatively, you can be charitable, but not a charity. Industrial and Provident Society for community benefit, Community Interest Company, Company limited by Guarantee. All three allow you to have not-for-profit status, asset lock etc - ie you act like a charity - but without the faff of having two separate bodies.

 

[Tim W]

As long as you set up a charity with proper charitable aims ---charity commission are pretty good at keeping an eye on this
Aims can include things like relieving poverty, education ,religion ,health ,citizenship or community development, the protection of the environment, animal welfare etc

If you want to set up a charity just to save on tax then think again

 

[Goweresque]

Yes, as a tangential operation to some other charitable cause. There's a farm locally that's become a charity, it takes people with autism and allows them to experience the countryside, help grow things, and work with the animals etc.

Pennyhooks Farm Trust - Pennyhooks

pennyhooks.com

I doubt that purely 'producing food in a commercial manner' would be accepted by the Charity Commission as a valid charitable aim though. If you wanted to farm in a historical manner say, and teach people how farming was done 100 years ago, that would probably fly, or some sort of nature conservation/educational aim. But just continuing to farm commercially but as a charity wouldn't be allowed.

 

[capfits]

Perhaps a social enterprise maybe an easier route to pursue.

What is it all about? »

The UK body for social enterprise - business with a social or environmental mission. We support business where society profits.

www.socialenterprise.org.uk

 

[Still Farming]

Animal sanctuaries, donkey sanctuary etc simular ideas???

 

[Wooly]

A couple of farms in our area with charitable trust status................ both for conservation.

 

[Turkish_FR]

I spend a lot of time in the car and wondered this today. Is it possible, sensible, has anyone done it?

We often hear on TFF that there are very tight margins for farms, so does being a non-profit charity where you just take a salary offer any advantages? (feeding the world is often framed as a charitable exercise)

It is "impossible" for small businesses to survive in the future. These charity kind of businesses are "must".

 

[Danllan]

 

[Robt]

I spend a lot of time in the car and wondered this today. Is it possible, sensible, has anyone done it?

We often hear on TFF that there are very tight margins for farms, so does being a non-profit charity where you just take a salary offer any advantages? (feeding the world is often framed as a charitable exercise)

Most non profit charity’s are bad!.... they take huge salaries yet make “no money”

 

[Chris F]

Most non profit charity’s are bad!.... they take huge salaries yet make “no money”

That doesn't necessarily make a lot of sense as criticism you know. Earn £500k a year being the CEO of Sainsburys and you are a businessman, earn £500k a year as the CEO of a charity that shelters the homeless and you are a parasite. Just because they pay huge salaries, doesn't make the charity itself bad. You have to take into account the amount of good they do.

 

[Robt]

That’s my point! It’s about what you do not what you earn! Why should a farm be a charity? Pleas justify! Why not a factory that employs under privileged or less fortunate . Why should a farm get it all? We are on the crest of a wave where the public supports us... that wave will stop

 

[som farmer]

That doesn't necessarily make a lot of sense as criticism you know. Earn £500k a year being the CEO of Sainsburys and you are a businessman, earn £500k a year as the CEO of a charity that shelters the homeless and you are a parasite. Just because they pay huge salaries, doesn't make the charity itself bad. You have to take into account the amount of good they do.

I think you have to look at any charity, and judge them by how much of donations, actually get the people that are that are meant to benefit, from those donations, When you see large saleries, for the management, or, running big call centres, or paying consultants, on how to extract the most money from people, they may not be the charities to give to.
To be brutally honest, I think some are run, as a means for top management, to have some very nice saleries !!!

 

[Chris F]

That’s my point! It’s about what you do not what you earn! Why should a farm be a charity? Pleas justify! Why not a factory that employs under privileged or less fortunate . Why should a farm get it all? We are on the crest of a wave where the public supports us... that wave will stop

The public buy our products. Do they really "support" us? Do they need to? I agree a charity can divide opinion massively, they tend to be great or at the other end of the spectrum in terms of public support.

I'm not advocating this approach, just wondering.

 

[Goweresque]

Anyway, how would being a charity aid a farm operating commercially, even if it could? Its not going to make the prices you get for the output any higher is it? Farms already effectively pay no VAT because food is zero rated, so can reclaim all the VAT on inputs, and charge no VAT on outputs. There would be Gift Aid advantages of course, but who is going to donate money to a commercial farm? And although charities pay no income tax on their income, if you're making profits to be taxed, why do you need to be a charity?

 

[Dry Rot]

I met a man who had collected locally for funds to send his sick daughter to Disneyland. It was so successful, the following year he sent several kids. The man was a video producer, so he employed himself to film the annual event to make a promotional film as a fund raiser. He assured me it was all quite legal and quite profitable as he sent the bill to the charity. Can't say I'd sleep well at night doing that.

 

[Goweresque]

I met a man who had collected locally for funds to send his sick daughter to Disneyland. It was so successful, the following year he sent several kids. The man was a video producer, so he employed himself to film the annual event to make a promotional film as a fund raiser. He assured me it was all quite legal and quite profitable as he sent the bill to the charity. Can't say I'd sleep well at night doing that.

Knowing a few people who work in the charity sector has been a right eye opener for me. The shady stuff that goes on would make a hard nosed businessman blush. Its made me think that the people in life you need to look out for most are the ones who claim to be 'doing good'. Whereas its pretty easy to sort the wheat from the chaff among those just interested in making money. As Dr Johnson said 'There are few ways in which a man can be more innocently employed than in getting money. '

 

[puppet]

Plenty rich private schools have charitable status.

 

[deleted user 837354]

Plenty rich private schools have charitable status.

Tax. Should be stopped.

 

[deleted user 837354]

Charity farms do exist, some in America are setup to rehabilitate recovering addicts and the like. Very rewarding for those who operate them.