Charitable Trust in United Kingdom

Definition of Charitable Trust

In accordance with the work A Dictionary of Law, this is a description of Charitable Trust : A trust for purposes that the law regards as charitable. There is no statutory definition of ‘charitable’. In a legal sense, a purpose is charitable only if it is for the furtherance of religion, for the advancement of education, for the relief of poverty, or for other purposes beneficial to the community. In every case the purpose must be for the benefit of the public or a section of it (though in cases of relief of poverty this is very easily satisfied); the precise meaning depends on the class of charity in question. The last class is taken to include every object of general utility to the public; it includes, for example, trusts for the protection of animals generally and for the provision of fire brigades. A trust cannot be charitable unless it is solely and exclusively for charitable purposes: benevolent and philanthropic purposes are not necessarily charitable. Trusts for purposes that are predominantly political are not charitable. A charitable trust has many advantages over a private noncharitable trust: its objects do not have to be certain; charitable trusts are not subject to the *rules against perpetuities or against perpetual trusts; if the objects are or have become impossible or impracticable, the trust may be saved by the *cy-pres doctrine; and the trustees may act by a majority. The greatest benefit to a charitable trust is that it has fiscal advantages: a charity is either wholly or partially exempt from income tax, corporation tax, capital gains tax, inheritance tax, stamp duty, and council tax.