Tag: gift aid

Gift Aid Declarations

A Gift Aid declaration allows charities and community amateur sports clubs (CASCs) to claim tax back on eligible donations.

It’s important that you keep records of declarations and Gift Aid payments.

If you make a Gift Aid claim without collecting a declaration from the donor, HMRC may ask you to repay the equivalent amount in tax.

Declaration formats

A declaration by a donor can be made in writing, verbally or online. Whichever format you use, donors must provide the required information for your Gift Aid claim to be valid.

HMRC template declarations

HMRC provides free template declaration forms for you to use. You don’t have to use a template, but if you do, you can be sure that declarations will meet HMRC’s requirements.

You can include additional information to suit your charity or CASC’s needs, eg reference numbers.

What declarations must include

There is no set design for a declaration form or a verbal declaration, but it must include:

the name of your charity or CASC
the donor’s full name
the donor’s home address
whether the declaration covers past, present or future donations or just a single donation
a statement that the donor wants Gift Aid to apply (this could be a tick box on a written or online declaration)
an explanation that the donor needs to pay the same amount or more of UK Income Tax and/or Capital Gains Tax as all charities and CASCs will claim on the donor’s gifts in a tax year and that the donor is responsible to pay any difference

For more detailed information click here

When To Claim Gift Aid

When you must claim

Your deadline to claim Gift Aid depends on how your charity is set up.

You need to claim for a donation within 4 years of the end of the financial period you received it in. 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 on cash donations under the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme within 2 years of the end of the tax year that the donations were collected in.

Keeping records

You need to keep records of these donations for a further two years

How to claim

You can claim Gift Aid using Charities Online with:

eligible software, like a database
a spreadsheet of your donations

For claims of over 1,000 donations you must use software.

To apply by post use form ChR1, which you can get from the charities helpline.

When you’ll get paid

You’ll get a Gift Aid payment by BACS within:

4 weeks if you claimed online
5 weeks if you claimed by post using form ChR1

Legal Requirements for Accounting Records

All charities (whether registered with the Charity Commission or not) must prepare accounts and make them available on request. All charities must keep accounting records, and prepare annual accounts which must be made available to the public on request

Charities with a gross income of more than £25,000 in their financial year are required to have their accounts independently examined or audited

Keeping accounting records

These records – for example cash books, invoices, receipts, Gift Aid records etc must be retained for at least 6 years (or at least 3 years in the case of charitable companies); where Gift Aid payments are received records will need to be maintained for 6 years with details of any substantial donors and to identify ‘tainted charity donations’ in accordance with HMRC guidance

An independent examination is an external review of a charity’s accounts and is carried out by an independent person with the requisite ability and practical experience to carry out a competent examination

An examination involves a review of the accounting records kept by the charity, and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. This means that all cash books, bank statements, invoices and receipts must also be made available for checking by the independent examiner

Spring Newsletter 2018

Our Spring Newsletter should have arrived with you by post – if it hasn’t please let us know by emailing us here, or download it here:

Newsletter Spring 2018

In this edition we cover HMRC Rates and Threshold Changes, Independent Examination of Accounts, Charity Governing Document, Claiming Tax Back on Donations, Gift Aid

Charity Registration

When to apply to register your charity

Usually, you must register with the Charity Commission if your charity is based in England or Wales and has over £5,000 income per year. The commission will take action to secure compliance if it identifies a charity which isn’t registered but should be.

If your charity is a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO) it must register whatever its income.

Charities that don’t have to register

Small unincorporated charities

If your charity is based in England and Wales and isn’t a CIO, you don’t have to apply to register it if its annual income is less than £5,000. But you can still apply to HM Revenue and Customs for recognition as a charity to get charity tax breaks and claim gift aid.

You can apply to the commission to register this sort of charity voluntarily, but the commission will only consider applications in exceptional circumstances. For example, if you can prove that your charity has been offered significant funds but has to provide a registered charity number before it can receive the funds.

More details can be found here