£2 Million VAT boost for Band Aid

Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Ivan Lewis, today announced that over £2 million has been refunded to the Band Aid Trust, equivalent to the VAT paid on more than 1 million purchases of the Christmas Band Aid 20 record and 300,000 purchases of the DVD of the 1985 Live Aid concert.

The Treasury has today paid over £2,161,504 to the Band Aid Charitable Trust to help fund the Trust’s work in tackling poverty and disease in the poorest parts of Africa.

Ivan Lewis said:

“When the Chancellor announced our plans for a VAT refund in November, we hoped that the record and DVD would be a success, and once again the British people have responded with huge generosity and goodwill to these fund-raising efforts. Band Aid has been raising the plight of the world’s poorest people for twenty years now and it gives me great pleasure that this money will aid the vital work that the Band Aid Trust continues to carry out in the most deprived parts of Africa.”

John Kennedy, Band Aid Trustee said:

“We are delighted to receive this donation which will be used to continue the Band Aid Trust's work in helping to relieve hunger and poverty in Ethiopia and the surrounding countries.”

Notes for editors

1. Proceeds of sales of both the DVD and record have been paid to the Band Aid Charitable Trust. The value of the special donation has been calculated based on sales figures, and paid to the Trust by the Department for International Development. The donation follows the announcement last November that the Government would follow the precedent set in 1985 and make a donation equivalent to VAT collected on sales of the new DVD of the 1985 Live Aid concert and of the new version of ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ released in December.
2. In Spring 1985, following months of campaigning led by Sir Bob Geldof, the then government agreed to make a donation to various charities working in Ethiopia and Chad through the Overseas Development Fund of an amount broadly equivalent to the VAT collected on sales of the original ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ single. At that time the Band Aid Charitable Trust had not been established.

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