text: Vince Cable joins backlash on charity tax relief - Telegraph
  4:46PM BST 12 Apr 2012
  Mr Cable's intervention – which will further strain relations between Conservative and Lib Dem ministers – came as more Conservative MPs raised concerns about the Treasury plans.
  Currently, higher-rate taxpayers donating to a charity can reclaim more than half of the tax. From April 2013, the maximum will be £50,000 per year, or 25 per cent of the individual's income.
  Ministers say the change is needed because some rich people are abusing the reliefs to cut their income tax bill. Charities have said the move will deprive good causes of significant donations.
  A spokeswoman for the Business Secretary said he "fully supports the need to clamp down on abusive tax avoidance but this should be separated from genuine charitable giving".
  She added that concerns have been raised with ministers including Mr Cable by universities and the minister is "sympathetic to those concerns".
  One Conservative Government source questioned Mr Cable's position, pointing out that Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems have publicly backed moves to reduce tax evasion.
  Mr Cable is not the only minister to express doubts about the policy. Jeremy Hunt, the Conservative Culture Secretary, is also said to have concerns.
  A growing number of Conservative backbenchers are also speaking out.
  John Whittingdale, the chairman of the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee, said the policy will undermine Coalition work to encourage charitable giving.
  "There is a real danger here that we throw out the baby with the bathwater. The Government has set great store by trying to increase philanthropy in support of the arts and good causes and this clearly won't help," he said.
  Ministers have said that much of the "abuse" of the relief system involves money donated to foreign-registered charities. Some MPs say that means ministers should look at regulating charities more closely, instead of cutting reliefs.
  Daniel Byles, a Conservative backbencher said: "If some charities [are] not doing much 'charitable' activity they shouldn't have charitable status, rather than a general cap on charitable tax relief."
  Chris White, another backbencher said the policy risks "using a sledgehammer to crack a nut."
  David Cameron this week to "look very sympathetically" at concerns about the policy, and officials are understood to be studying ways of softening the blow for some British charities.