Britain's updated Charities Act 2006, which comes into force next year, poses a threat to the financial and intellectual freedom of university presses, like Oxford University Press, some critics say.
Currently, academic presses recieve (sic) automatic charity status, and are thus exempt from corporation taxes and stamp duties. Under the new act, the presses will have to justify their charitible (sic) status by demonstrating their use (sic) to the general public. If they fail, they will be subjected to the same tax structure as the mainstream commercial presses. Oxford University Press, based on its 2006 income figures, would face £19 m in corporation taxes.
Representatives of university presses have criticized the act for making it financially impossible for the presses to serve their main charitable purpose of spreading information. David Rodgers, of Manchester University Press, said, "the implication would be that the prices of our publications would need to be increased - perhaps by up to 10% - so the academic institutions, scholars and students who buy them would pay more. Effectively this would mean fewer books being bought by the higher education sector, and a restriction in the dissemination of knowledge."
Stephen Bourne, of Cambridge University Press, sees the consequences on a global scale: "Britain is not the only jurisdiction to regard CUP's purposes and activities as being of public benefit. The press is accorded charitable recognition from Manhattan to Madrid to Melbourne."
A spokeswoman for Oxford University Press, however, seemed confident that the press would remain unaffected: "OUP's UK tax exemption derives from the fact that it is a department of the University of Oxford, which is a charity. For as long as the university as a whole continues to meet the requirements of the Act, the university - and therefore OUP - will continue to have charitable status."
Even if OUP's status should change, some academics believe the University's own finances might be largely unaffected. OUP author Andrew Malcolm said, "comparatively speaking, this would be little more than chickenfeed as far as the whole university is concerned."
CHARITIES' PUBLIC BENEFIT CONSULTATIONThe deadline (6th June) for submissions concerning the new 'public benefit' guidelines for charities has now passed. A final version of the guidelines will be published by the Charity Commission later this year (2007), and there will then follow a series of further consultations on four specific types of charity: charities for the relief of poverty, charities for the advancement of religion, charities for the advancement of education, and fee-charging charities, with university presses (along with private schools, the Oxbridge colleges and, indeed, universities) falling into the latter two categories. Stay tuned to www.akme for news of when these important sub-sector consultations are due to begin. |