[Omah]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18278253

Chancellor George Osborne has dropped plans to limit tax relief on charitable giving announced in March's Budget following protests from charities.

He has announced there will continue to be no limit on what an individual can donate to charity and offset against their tax liability.

It is the latest in a series of U-turns on policies announced in the Budget, including the pasty and caravan taxes.

Mr Osborne announced in his March Budget that from April 2013 the maximum amount that would be able to be reclaimed in tax relief - including on charitable giving - was £50,000 or 25% of the individual's income, whichever was the greater.

The chancellor said in a newspaper interview he had been "shocked" by the scale of legal tax avoidance by the very rich, after seeing the result of a confidential study by HM Revenue and Customs and this was a "specific" loophole he wanted to close.

But the plan was met with dismay by charities who claimed it would cause major donations to stop.

A government spokesman said they had been clear that the uncertainty caused by the proposed cap on charitable reliefs created a risk to the charitable sector and in light of this they had decided to exempt charitable reliefs from the cap.

The spokesman declined to comment on the suggestion that this might be a good be a "good day to bury bad news", given that media attention is focused on Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt's appearance before the Leveson inquiry

Another Tory cock-up - "shambles" is really the only way to describe the current government of this country .....