A Galway parish has managed to use a tax relief provision to pay for over a third of the cost of a new pastoral centre.
Kilkerrin’s new pastoral centre cost €170,000 and the parish got
donors to its fundraising campaign to pay €110,000.
The remaining
€60,000 was raised by the donors using a little-known tax shelter for
contributions to charity.
Other churches have tried to avail of this Finance Act provision but with less success.
The provision allows people to avail of tax relief on donations to
charities subject to the relief being paid to the charity in question.
Churches and other voluntary bodies are approved as charitable
institutions by the Commissioners for Charitable Donations and Bequests
and donations to them are tax-deductible.
Kilkerrin parishioners who
are PAYE taxpayers were able to claim the rebate on Mass offerings and
parish dues and over a number of years, these raised €60,000.
This obviated the need for special fund-raising for the centre, as
the parish was already able to fund the balance from its own resources.
At the opening of the Centre, parish council spokesman Jimmy Dillon
thanked parishioners for making their claims to the Revenue
Commissioners.
The new facility will now be used as a venue for weekday Masses,
because they are attended by a small number of people and the village
church is costly to heat on a daily basis.
It will also be a meeting
place for community activities in Kilkerrin itself and other adjacent
parishes – Dunmore, Glenamaddy and Williamstown - with which it has been
associated in a parish clustering initiative in the Tuam archdiocese.
In particular, it will facilitate prayer groups and first communion and
confirmation preparation.
The centre will serve as a parish office and has an ‘adoration room’,
which provides a tranquil prayer area.
The centre was blessed and
opened by parish priest Fr Tom Commins.