[foundation-board] Panton Fellowships operations - RFC

Thu Jan 5 16:13:05 UTC 2012

On Thu, Jan 5, 2012 at 3:49 PM, Becky Hogge <becky.hogge at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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?

The latter. Their tax is their problem :-)

> 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.

It is not possible to sign away employer's PAYE liability.

>
> 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.
>>
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