The Finance Committee

The Finance Committee is an independent committee within the Parish set up to ensure that the Parish finances are organised in accordance with the Charities Act and in line with the Diocesan policy on financial regulation. Its members are:

Frank Heaney (Chair),

Stuart Ritchie (Secretary), 020 8504 4121

Michael Butterworth,

Jim Hoban (Chair of the Pastoral Parish Council, PPC)

and the priests working on behalf of the Parish:

Father Isidore (Parish Priest) and Father Brian.

The Finance Committee makes no policy decisions on parish financial issues. Such decisions belong to the Parish Priest after consultation with the PPC. The Finance Committee, however, is consulted on spending to ensure that such spending is kept within available resources. It also acts as a critical friend to the Parish Priest on any issues relevant to the parish finances.

In addition, close links are established with the Parish Office and the diocese to ensure a seamless and transparent conduct of parish financial affairs.

Gift Aid

Gift Aid is for parishioners who pay tax and donate regularly to the Parish. If you sign up to the gift aid scheme it allows the parish to reclaim back the tax element of your gift giving the parish an extra 22% on top of your donation at no cost to yourself. The last financial year the Parish was able to reclaim almost £30,000 due to this scheme.

It works like this:
If you contribute one pound, 100p, to the Church this is an amount out of your income that has already been taxed. If you are a standard rate taxpayer you had to earn 128.2 pence in order to be able to pay the 100p. Under the Gift Aid Scheme the Church can claim back this 28.2p from the Inland Revenue.

What you need to do:
Make sure that every amount given to the Church can be identified as coming from you and make a simple declaration providing your full name and address and stating that you wish all your donations to be treated as Gift Aid donations.

It is very simple to do and a very important source of revenue for the Church.

For full details contact Leon Menzies (tel: 020 8559 1617) or email leon@racionzer.net

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