I don't think its a case of 'taking' from people to give to others
It is, lets not pretend otherwise. Paying for anything with taxes means taking money from someone under threat of violence and imprisonment. We must always remember this, because it
ought to set a high bar for what tax money can be spent on. It's not like we can temporarily adjust the overseas aid budget downward because your aged grandparents, or the low-paid street sweeper can't afford their tax bill. The Income Tax Department will simply chase them until they get it or the person is in jail. Yes, this is extreme, but it is what we as a society have decided to do to people who don't pay up.
I think we are morally obligated to provide some charitable support to poorer countries, whether this happens individually or at a governmental level.
Let your morals inform and guide how much you give, but neither you nor I am in a position to make that decision for anyone else.
On a practical level I think donation by government works as its pooled- the level of contribution if it was left to people individually would probably plummet, if only through lack of awareness and inertia, rather than lack of desire.
Actually, the empirical evidence does not support this. I can't seem to find it now (I will keep looking), but I saw some research that compared public charity to private charity, and there was a strong negative correlation - those countries that relied less on public largess had a stronger private charitable sector. When the government donates in our names, we tend to stop doing it ourselves. It is also worth noting that in the Victorian era, the average person gave 10% of their income to charity. They didn't need the government to do it for them, so we shouldn't either.
On a more factual note, over £100 they are, in a manner similar to the UK gift aid system. The Comptroller will gross up the donation and pay the 'tax' on the donation to the charity - link to the relevant form below.
http://www.gov.je/NR/rdonlyres/2D34A195-B111-405E-A766-3A0EFD28DBB7/0/R10lsd.pdf
Indeed, but this is little known, and lets be fair - how many people make donations over that size? All those ten-pound-a-month direct debits don't count. I would prefer it to be an entry on your tax form because people will, knowing the box is there, make use of it because they will know it lowers their visible tax burden. The current system may be functionally equivalent, but it's a question of perception. Let's make use of the human desire to stick one to the tax-man!
