Big surpluses for Matheson charities

Accounts have just landed for three registered charities owned by law firm Matheson. Medb Charitable Trust, Badb Charitable Trust and Eurydice Charitable Trust also act as shareholders for Irish-registered entities of hedge funds that invest in exotic securities, such as weather catastrophe bonds.

The accounts show that the three trusts combined last year had gross income of about €681,000. They paid out €354,000 in donations to various charities.

Roughly half the trusts’ income comes from donations. The rest – €330,000 in 2014 – came from “service fees”, presumably related to their use by private equity giants such as KKR to help reduce tax bills.

The accounts show a combined €126,000 of the charities’ income was “unrecoverable”, which was not explained further in any of the financial statements.

The three charities are registered to “relieve poverty and distress”. A note to each of their financial statements shows the law firm holds total funds of more than €1.4 million on their behalf. That will surely relieve a whole lot of poverty and distress when it eventually gets disbursed.

Matheson has always strongly defended its use of the charities in the tax-efficient corporate schemes of its clients. It told us recently that their use in this way is consistent with the trio’s constitutional documents and it is “standard practice” for charitable trusts to be used by financial institutions.

The three trusts operate collectively as the Matheson Foundation, which supports many good causes, including St Vincent de Paul and the Make a Wish Foundation. "Since 2005, the Matheson charities have raised over €1 million," it said.

Whatever about the charities’ use, their names are quite catchy. Medb is the correct spelling for the randy mythical Queen of Connacht. Badb was a mythical Irish war goddess who terrified her enemies by turning into a crow. Eurydice was a mythical Greek nymph who died after she stood on a snake.

They certainly know their history in Matheson.