SIR – About a week ago we received an envelope from Bingley Parish Church seeking a donation to Christian Aid.

Attached was a small form requesting the donor’s name and address. This in turn allows a charity to recover from HMRC the notional income tax because it assumes that contributions are made out of after-tax income.

This means that charities are being subsidised by the taxpayer simply because successive governments have believed that tax-free giving to the likes of Christian Aid is a good idea.

This is one of a number of tax-based incentives like interest-free ISAs which are intended to steer the population at large towards goals which theoretically make our country a better place by, for example, giving and saving.

It is a strange way indeed of looking at things for Graham Hoyle to suggest (T&A Letters, May 15) that taking advantage of such tax reliefs is the equivalent of children stealing Mars bars.

By extension, therefore, he is suggesting that tax avoiders have been given the nod towards using statutory provisions for personal gain in ways which were not intended by parliament. Personally, I do not see a connection.

Brian Holmans, Langley Road, Bingley