O2 leads the way to ensure charities benefit from text donations
03 Nov 2009 12:28 
Products and Devices
O2 today announces that it is to cut charges to ensure charities receive an extra 10p in the pound from text donations made by O2 customers from November.
Charities of all sizes will now be able to receive an estimated extra 10p in the pound for text donations of up to £10 made via dedicated 70 prefix short codes. O2 will ensure registered UK charities that opt to use a dedicated short code will receive 90 per cent of the donation. O2 charges a small fee to cover its network costs, VAT on the cost of the text message, insurance against bad debt, and a range of third party costs.
Simon Davis, Head of Corporate Responsibility at O2 said: ''We’re glad to be able to do what we can to help charities carry on their work. O2 is pleased to lead the way in supporting charities in this way.''
This this in addition to the ruling that VAT is not payable on charity donations made via text message. Charities eligible under the rules of HMRC are allocated a dedicated numeric short code for donations only. Any five-digit text message short code beginning '70' is now automatically considered a charity code and becomes eligible for the enhanced payout. VAT previously charged on the donation is now passed directly to the charitable organisation. VAT is still payable on the operator's or aggregator's costs. Aggregators provide the application and connection to the mobile networks.
O2's flagship charity programme It's Your Community aims to inspire young people to take action to improve their communities and get together with others who share common interests and local passions. The programme runs on the principle that, by funding lots of small groups to make a difference across the UK, the collective impact will be far more significant. To date £1.3 million has been donated to over 1,700 projects across the UK.
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About O2 UK• Telefónica O2 UK Limited is a leading communications company for consumers and businesses in the UK, with 21 million mobile customers and 527,126 fixed broadband customers as at 30 September 2009.
• Telefónica O2 UK Limited is part of Telefónica Europe plc which is a business division of Telefónica S.A. and which owns O2 in the UK, Ireland, Slovakia, Germany and the Czech Republic, and has 46 million customers.
• In 2006 Telefónica Europe acquired Be*, the UK fixed broadband provider, and in October 2007 O2 launched its broadband service using the Be* network.
• O2 is the naming rights partner of The O2, the world-class entertainment venue.
• O2 was ranked highest in customer satisfaction for both UK mobile and fixed broadband customers according to the J.D. Power and Associates UK Mobile and Fixed Broadband Studies 2009.
• In February 2009 O2 became the first UK mobile operator to be officially certified with the Carbon Trust Standard in recognition of O2’s commitment to reduce its carbon footprint and the 15% reduction in energy consumption achieved over the past three years.
• O2 was launched on 1 May 2002 and now has more customers than any other UK mobile network.
• O2’s UK mobile network covers 99% of the UK’s population. O2’s 3G network covers over 80% of the UK population and is fully HSDPA-enabled, providing speeds of up to 3.6 Mbps for customers with an HSDPA-enabled device.
• Telefónica Europe also owns 50% of the Tesco Mobile and Tchibo Mobilfunk joint venture businesses in the UK and Germany.
• For further press information about O2 go to
http://mediacentre.o2.co.uk