The Finance Committee

The Finance Committee is an independent committee within the Parish set up to ensure that the Parish finances are organised in accordance with the Charities Act and in line with the Diocesan policy on financial regulation. Its members are:

Brian Martin( Chair)
Paul Turpin (representative from Pastoral Parish Council, PPC)
Bernard Bourdillon

and the priest working on behalf of the Parish:

Br Michael Copps - Parish Priest

The Finance Committee makes no policy decisions on parish financial issues. Such decisions belong to the Parish Priest after consultation with the PPC. The Finance Committee, however, is consulted on spending to ensure that such spending is kept within available resources. It also acts as a critical friend to the Parish Priest on any issues relevant to the parish finances.

In addition, close links are established with the Parish Office and the diocese to ensure a seamless and transparent conduct of parish financial affairs.

Gift Aid

Gift Aid is for parishioners who pay tax and donate regularly to the Parish. If you sign up to the gift aid scheme it allows the parish to reclaim back the tax element of your gift giving the parish an extra 25% on top of your donation at no cost to yourself. The last financial year the Parish was able to reclaim almost £30,000 due to this scheme.

It works like this:

If you contribute £1 to the Church this is an amount out of your income that has already been taxed. If you are a standard rate taxpayer you had to earn £1.20 in order to be able to pay the £1.00. Under the Gift Aid Scheme the Church can claim back an extra 25p from the Inland Revenue for every £1.00 given.

What you need to do:

Make sure that every amount given to the Church can be identified as coming from you and make a simple declaration providing your full name and address and stating that you wish all your donations to be treated as Gift Aid donations. It is very simple to do and a very important source of revenue for the Church.

Please find below the Gift Aid Declaration form to be returned to the Parish Office and Standing Order Mandate for your bank. Many thanks for your ongoing support and generosity, our church is funded solely by the support of our parishioners.

If you would like to contact any members of the Finance Committee, please do so via the Parish Office.

Standing order mandate form

Gift Aid Declaration Form

St Thomas of Canterbury Financial Report 2023

Accounts to 5th April 2023

Accounts to 5th April 2022

Income & expenditure to 5th April 2022

Parish Finance Committee Annual Report “Looking Beyond the Pandemic” Financial Year 2020/2021

Finance Committee Annual Report 2019/2020 (April 2019-March 2020)

Balance Sheet as at 5th April 2019

Income and Expenditure Account for the year ended 5th April 2019

Finance group report to the Parish Pastoral Council meeting December 2018

2017 /18 Income Overview Piecharts