Charity tax debacle - update

The Spectator has a lot more information than my simple opinion piece, blogged yesterday, in its Coffee House blog: How Mitt Romney inspired the British charity tax debacle. Fascinating insight, and certainly confirming that the Departmental ministers for Business and for Culture, Media and Sport were cut out of the policy-making loop.
The Times gave five cases where HM Treasury say that charitable donations are abused. These all look pretty tenuous and could be handled under existing rules if the Charities Commission and HMRC do their jobs properly. To summarise the abuses and the charities' response:

	Treasury case	Charity response
1	Shares donated to charity found to be worth less than claimed	Relief is based on fair market value
2	Business gives money and claims relief. Money is then lent back.	Government has already cracked down on 'tainted donations'
3	Relief claimed for donation to a dubious charity that doesn't do much charitable work	This is for the Charities Commission to police
4	Tax relief claimed for donation to a dubious foreign charity	It's not allowed to claim relief on donations to charities outside the EU
5	Tax relief given on donation to UK charity which passes the cash to a dubious charity abroad	UK charity has to satisfy HMRC that the foreign charity would qualify

In a final dagger thrust to the Government's credibility, it also vented rumours that Oliver Letwin is to be asked to sort out the political mess. For heaven's sake!