Marsh charity The Joseph Salmon Trust campaigns to abolish ‘grief tax’

Nov 17 2009 By Sam Casey

A CHARITY that supports bereaved families wants to stop the taxman making money from people’s grief.

The Joseph Salmon Trust, based in Marsh, is lobbying the Government to abolish taxes on headstones.

Under current legislation funerals, cremations, burials and other related costs that are deemed essential are exempt from VAT.

But the standard 15% tax still has to be paid on headstones and other memorial items viewed as non- essential.

Neil and Rachael Salmon set up The Joseph Salmon Trust to help parents who lose children cover the costs of the funeral and other expenses.

Many of the people they support need money for a headstone.

Neil said: "As a charity we are raising money that is then going straight to the taxman.

"It’s not like VAT on a packet of biscuits – a matter of pennies – we’re talking about significant amounts of money.

"It’s completely unfair. VAT is supposed to be on luxuries and you can hardly say that a headstone is a luxury. It’s an essential part of grieving, so this is effectively a tax on grief.

"We would have thousands of pounds more in our bank account than we do now if we didn’t have to pay VAT and that would mean we would be able to help a lot more people.

"We are back into our reserve funds at the moment and are struggling a bit.

"We wouldn’t be struggling at all if it wasn’t for this."