Magog Trust Finance

The Magog Trust was formed as a company limited by guarantee, is a registered charity and a registered farmer. This means it has to abide by regulations applying to companies, charities and farmers. Our financial set-up reflects these aspects.

What does it cost?

Community Liaison
This includes the membership and community activities of the Magog Trust. These activities are wholly charitable in that they relate to our access and educational objects. We aim to break even on these activities. Last year membership brought in £8,700, a very useful part of our income.

Corporate
This includes the finance and administration functions of the Trust and managing our expendable endowment, set up following receipt of a very generous legacy, the income covers the cost of the Ranger Service that we buy from Cambridge Past, Present and Future. Last year Investment Income was £14,413, donations, grants and other income amounted to £5,068.

Land Management
This includes all our farming and conservation activities. Since we started we have had a series of stewardship agreements which provide a steady income in return for providing free public access to our land and enhancing its conservation value by restoring chalk downland, creating new woodland and recreating other habitats to restore the diversity of flora and fauna on Magog Down. The main part of our income comes from the arable land at the foot of the South Down. In total we had £52,068 income from land management last year. This generated a surplus for the year but over the coming year we will be spending all that and more on reshaping our woodlands to protect our Scheduled Ancient Monument.

Taxation
As a charity we are exempt from income and corporation taxes but not VAT. We are registered for VAT and can recover all VAT we pay through our status as a ëde minimisí partial exemption (if you really want to know more look it up on the HMRC website). If we sell goods and services we have to charge VAT.

Gift Aid
Members and donors who are paying tax at standard rate can help us by making their payment under Gift Aid. A simple declaration is all that we need to say you pay the tax from income. Last year we got Gift Aid tax refunds of £1,962.