That is a very good idea. We happened to go on a free Wednesday and had to queue for over an hour (annoying as we only had three and a half hours in total) to get in .
The trend in Britain is for there to be a stated 'donation' included in the entrance fee, which is technically optional but most people will pay as refusing to make a charitable donation is not something many can bring themselves to do! The charitable donation allows the zoo to claim back the VAT (sales tax) on the rest of the entrance fee if the person paying is a UK taxpayer. This is under the Government 'Gift Aid' scheme - one of the best things to come out of Goverment in years - it makes zoos a lot of extra cash.
I hate to be picky but I don't think that's the case, well it isn't at Bristol at least. The donation is literally extra money you pay that goes to a charity of the zoos choice, at Bristol I believe it's CWAF. Then if the zoo want to reclaim the tax off the visitor's entrance fee they have to make them sign a gift aid form, or in the case of London zoo just take your postcode and they enter it into the computer on the door.
I'm sure that's the way it goes, and if not then I've been wasting my time as I don't pay tax
I hate to be picky but I don't think that's the case, well it isn't at Bristol at least. The donation is literally extra money you pay that goes to a charity of the zoos choice, at Bristol I believe it's CWAF. Then if the zoo want to reclaim the tax off the visitor's entrance fee they have to make them sign a gift aid form, or in the case of London zoo just take your postcode and they enter it into the computer on the door.
I'm sure that's the way it goes, and if not then I've been wasting my time as I don't pay tax
I'm sure there was some threat of zoos' right to use Gift Aid being taken away as they were held to be primarily visitor attractions, and the 'voluntary' donations appeared as a way of justifying their access to the system. Could be wrong though. And I'm more or less certain that strictly they can only claim it back on money paid by UK taxpayers - how that works in practice I'm not sure.
