Following the very well attended public meeting held on 10th January, the Green Phoenix Community Interest Company, which is looking to purchase the building on behalf of the local community, has issued the following update.
Shares:
Having listened to comments at the meeting, subsequent emails, people dropping cheques off at our houses and many chats on the street the overwhelming view has been that if we reduce the share price it will mean investment will be possible to a much broader part of the community & there will be a bigger uptake and larger raise. A smaller group of people have felt we should stay at the higher level, having considered all comments we have taken the view (not lightly) that by reducing the share price it will hopefully mean a lot more members of the community are able to invest and will do so.
We therefore intend to issue the main share price at £1,000.
We still believe we will need investors at a higher level to reach our target, so we would ask that if you originally committed or thought of committing to £5,000 or an even greater amount please do try to stay at that level.
We have also been asked if people can make donations, we mentioned at the meeting that one community pub had produced a class of shares which had no voting rights and no dividend, as such we intend to issue a class of share of the same type. Investors can buy these and still receive the tax upside but without the other benefits or hassle.
Share Price:
"A" Shares – £1,000 each. Full voting and dividend rights.
"B" Shares – £250 each. No voting or dividend rights.
We will shortly be issuing a share prospectus which will give more detail and info on the process for purchasing shares.
Tax:
The below statements and examples should be used as a summary and are not guaranteed. Personal financial advice should be sought.
Social Investment Tax Relief 'SITR' – A flat rate of 30% income tax relief to all UK tax payers. In order to benefit from SITR the investor must hold the investment for a minimum of three years
This effectively means a £1,000 investment will cost a tax paying investor £700.
Capital Gains Tax (CGT) deferral – if a chargeable gain (made after 5th April 2014) is invested into an SITR qualifying investment the liability can be deferred, so that tax is only payable when the SITR investment is realised.
Unquoted Shares could benefit from Business Property Relief (BPR) and may therefore may be exempt from Inheritance Tax (IHT)
Building Survey:
Many thanks for all those persons who have contributed to our up-front costs fund, this now stands at over £2,500 and we have instructed our Surveyors to begin their work which is taking place today (Friday)
Food Survey:
Caroline Cooper and Gail Rowe very kindly volunteered to produce an online survey regarding the food proposition, they have been working with our team flat out this week and you can take part by clicking the survey link here, we will also be distributing hard copies round the village and aim to distribute the results by the end of next week.
To have your say on the food & drink proposition, click here.
Banking:
We have given up on our current bank who seem incapable of answering the phone or having any staff, and we have now almost completed a new application with a "challenger" bank who we hope will have account numbers with us in the next few days for those donations. Apologies for the delay, but believe me it has been more painful for us!
Again, many thanks for your support and we look forward to sharing more news soon,
Onwards!
The Green Phoenix Team.
Jamie, Nick, Alex W, Paul, Alex G, Chris, Gareth, Johnny & John
Website: www.greenphoenixpub.co.uk
