[foundation-board] Panton Fellowships operations - RFC

[Becky Hogge]

A few small comments

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sucuEeNBaPsR5G_piK-518o_AWanX1jxTkpM3j7KZ8M/edit
-point 18) "The OKFN is strongly committed to equal opportunities." -
what activities do we have to undertake to live up to this statement?
-point 23) Change "You" to "The Fellow" for consistency?
-general - is "the board" us? Or is it some separate Fellowship board?
I fear (excluding James and perhaps Ben) we do not have the expertise
to judge fellowship applications from practitioners of the sciences.

Is the concern about taxation that the set up may leave the Fellow
liable to tax, or may leave us liable vis a vis the Fellow being
viewed as an employee of the organisation? If the former, it strikes
me that regulation BIM65155 (in general, awards and grants are not
taxable) applies to this money, and in any case, the matter will be
for the Fellow and not for us. If the latter, the wording you've
included looks similar enough to contracts I have signed that exempt
my co-signers from being liabile for my tax affairs for me not to be
concerned.

Cheers

Becky

On 3 January 2012 13:16, Laura James <laura.james at okfn.org> wrote:
> Many apologies - I meant OSI not shuttleworth. Please write this off
> as first day of year confusion.
>
> On the question of the OSI intent, we are certainly doing what we said
> we'd do in the grant application, but I haven't seen a formal funding
> agreement.  Rufus - any ideas where this might be?  Doesn't seem to be
> in google docs or dropbox.
>
>
> On 3 January 2012 11:53, Ben Laurie <ben at links.org> wrote:
>> On Tue, Jan 3, 2012 at 11:14 AM, Laura James <laura.james at okfn.org> wrote:
>
>> a) The agreement doesn't seem to say they need to follow the
>> principles themselves, which seems a little odd.
>
> Good point, I'll get that added in :)
>
>> b) "This is not employment" - is that sufficient to avoid tax
>> liability (particularly PAYE)? Have we checked?
>
> This is a somewhat opaque area, but some relevant material is included
> below. Since we are not asking for services (although clause 11 in the
> agreement could perhaps be read as such), and this is a grant/award to
> researchers, in the mould of similar schemes, I feel this we are OK
> and exempt from PAYE etc in this case, but if you'd like me to dig
> into this further I can.
>
> Laura
> Laura
>
>
>
>
>
> http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/eimanual/EIM06250.htm
>
> EIM06250 - Employment income: scholarship income: miscellaneous
> awards: research awards or fellowships
>
> Section 776 IT(TOI)A 2005 (Section 331 ICTA 1988)
> Research awards or fellowships are sometimes offered to qualified
> individuals, who have normally completed their post-graduate training,
> to enable them to undertake a specific research project over a fixed
> period.... Whether payments made to the holder of the award or
> fellowship are chargeable to tax will depend on the particular facts.
> There is unlikely to be a contract of employment. If the holder of the
> award is engaged under an enforceable contract to provide services,
> for example, to research a particular project, in return for a fee any
> liability to tax will be under the Miscellaneous Income rules (see
> BIM65151).
>
>
> http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/bimmanual/BIM65155.htm
>
> BIM65155 - Research grants and fellowships: British Academy
> As a result of discussions with the British Academy, the Board have
> agreed that in general, awards and grants are not taxable. Where,
> however, such awards are received in the course of the beneficiary's
> profession or vocation, advice should be obtained from Business Tax
> (Technical). As regards other awards see SE06200 and following, and
> BIM50710.
>
> _______________________________________________
> foundation-board mailing list
> foundation-board at lists.okfn.org
> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-board