3.2. Who can claim it?
3.3. What can you claim?
4.4. How to Claim GASDS
5.1. Keeping Records
5.2. When You'll Get Paid
1. What is Gift Aid?
Charities and Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASCs) can claim an extra 25p from HMRC (His Majesty's Revenue and Customs) for every £1 a donor gives. It will not cost the donor any extra. This is called Gift Aid.
Charities can claim Gift Aid on most donations, but some payments do not qualify.
Charities can claim Gift Aid directly through StockCrowd and should receive payments within 5 weeks (but often as quickly as 10 working days)
1.1. How to Claim Gift Aid
For claims of over 1,000 donations, you must use software. You can claim Gift Aid using StockCrowd’s software.
However, your charity or community amateur sports club (CASC) must first register on Charities Online (a service provided by HMRC) to be eligible to claim tax repayments for Gift Aid and top-up payments under the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme (GASDS).
For Gift Aid queries at HMRC, charities can contact the charities helpline.
👉 Please check this article to read more about how to claim the Gift Aid with StockCrowd.
1.2. What Types of Charitable Organisations are Eligible?
There are multiple types of community-oriented/charitable organisations in the UK, but not all are eligible for Gift Aid. The following types of organisations are eligible:
Registered UK Charities
Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASCs)
Charitable Incorporated Organisations (CIO)
1.3. What does a donor need to do?
The donor must:
have paid at least as much in Income Tax or Capital Gains Tax in that tax year as a charity wants to claim in Gift Aid
make a Gift Aid declaration that gives the charity permission to claim it
If the donor has not made a declaration, a charity may still be able to claim on cash donations of £30 or less, for example from a collection.
1.4. Special rules for claiming Gift Aid
There are special rules for the following types of fundraising and we would advise referring to the HMRC website for further details:
funds from sponsored challenges for example overseas treks or marathons
selling goods on behalf of individuals, for example through a charity shop
volunteer expenses donated back to your charity or CASC
funds raised through charities involved in running schools
1.5. What is not eligible for Gift Aid claims?
Charities cannot claim on donations:
from limited companies
made through Payroll Giving
that is a payment for goods or services or made because your charity or CASC bought goods and services
where the donor gets a ‘benefit’ over a certain limit
of shares
from charity cards or vouchers, for example Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) vouchers
of membership fees to CASCs
you got before you were a recognised charity or CASC
1.6. Gift Aid Declarations
1.6.1. What are Gift Aid Declarations?
To claim Gift Aid you need to get a Gift Aid Declaration from the donor.
It should state that the donor:
has paid the same amount or more in Income Tax or Capital Gains Tax in that tax year
agrees to Gift Aid being claimed
👉 Charities must keep a record of declarations for 6 years after the most recent donation you claimed Gift Aid on.
1.6.2. Gift Aid Declarations Form
The declaration must include a description of the gift and the:
name of your charity or community amateur sports club (CASC)
donor’s full name
donor’s home address (at least their house number or name and postcode)
2. Charities Online - HMRC Online Services
2.1. Register for the HMRC Charities Online Services
To make a claim using Charities Online, you’ll need to log in to your HMRC Online Services account using your user ID and password.
If you do not have an account, you’ll need to register online.
To register for an HMRC Online Services account you’ll need to:
Go to HMRC’s Online Services home page and select ‘register’.
Select ‘sign up for HMRC Online Services’.
Select ‘organisation’, which takes you to the ‘new user’ page.
Select ‘charities’ and go to the next page.
You’ll then need to enter your charity’s or CASC’s:
postcode
HMRC reference (up to 5 numbers, starts with 1 or 2 letters)
customer account number (add a zero to the start if it’s 9 digits) or the last 4 digits of your bank account number if HMRC recognised you as a charity or CASC before April 2013.
Once you’ve accepted the terms and conditions and entered your name and email address, you’ll need to create a password. Your password must be between 8 and 12 characters (letters and numbers) and cannot contain the word ‘password’.
You’ll then be presented on screen with a unique, 12-digit user ID number and you’ll also be asked to enter your charity’s details.
Make a note of both your user ID number and your password and keep them safe. You’ll need them to access HMRC Online Services.
2.2. Activate your Charities Online Account
After you’ve registered, you will receive an activation code from HMRC, which takes around a week to arrive. You must use this code within 28 days.
Log in to HMRC Online Services using your user ID and password, and you’ll see ‘Charities’ listed as one of the ‘services you can use’. You’ll then need to:
Select ‘activate service’.
Enter your Charities Online activation code.
Select ‘activate’.
3. Small Donations Scheme
3.1. What is the Small Donations Scheme?
Charities may be able to claim 25% on:
cash donations of £30 or less
contactless card donations of £30 or less collected on or after 6 April 2019
This is called the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme (GASDS). Charities do not need a Gift Aid declaration to claim.
From 6 April 2016, Charities can claim up to £2,000 in a tax year or £1.
From 6 April 2016, Charities can claim up to £2,000 in a tax year or £1,250 for earlier years.
3.2. Who can claim it?
To claim the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme, your charity or CASC must have claimed Gift Aid:
in the same tax year as you want to claim GASDS.
without getting a penalty in the last 2 tax years.
in at least 2 of the last 4 tax years (without a 2-year gap between claims) if you’re claiming on donations made before 6 April 2017.
3.3. What can you claim?
Your GASDS claim cannot be more than 10 times your Gift Aid claim. For example, you can claim £1,000 worth of donations through GASDS if you’ve received £100 of Gift Aid donations in the same tax year.
You can claim donations that are eligible for Gift Aid, but not membership fees.
4. Special Conditions for Collections in Community Buildings
4.1. Claim more on Collections in Community Buildings
If your charity has a community building (for example a village hall or religious building) you might be able to claim more on donations collected either:
in your community building
in the same council area as your community building, if you collected the donations on or after 6 April 2017
For somewhere to count as your community building, you need to have hosted at least 6 charity events there. The events must have all been attended by at least 10 people.
4.2. Special conditions if your organisation is connected to another charity or CASC
If one of the charities has a community building, all of the connected charities can either:
share a single £8,000 limit - all the charities will need to write to HMRC to do this
If none of the charities has a community building, or you’re claiming for donations made before 6 April 2017, the connected charities must share a single £8,000 limit.
If your charity has merged with another charity or CASC you may be able to take on the other charity’s record of good claims.
4.3. Keeping Records for GASDS
You need to record the:
total cash donations collected
date of the collection
date it was paid into a bank account
You’ll need to keep records of any contactless card donations that you’ve taken, for example, receipts from your card machine.
For collections in community buildings, you’ll also need to record:
the address of the place you collected the donations (including postcode)
the type of event
the number of events you held
an estimate of how many people were at the event
when you collected the donations
4.4. How to Claim GASDS
Claim under GASDS in the same way as Gift Aid.
5. When Charities Must Claim the Gift Aid?
The deadline to claim Gift Aid depends on how your charity is set up.
Charities need to claim a donation within 4 years of the end of the financial period you received it. This is:
the tax year (6 April to 5 April) if you’re a trust
your accounting period if your charity is a community amateur sports club (CASC), a Charity Incorporated Organisation (CIO) or a limited company
You must claim cash donations under the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme within 2 years of the end of the tax year that the donations were collected.
5.1. Keeping Records
You need to keep records of these donations for a further two years.
5.2. When You’ll Get Paid
You’ll get a Gift Aid payment by BACS within:
4 weeks if you claimed online (but often it is received much quicker)
5 weeks if you claimed by post using form ChR1
Contact the charities' helpline if your repayment is wrong or if you submitted an incorrect claim.