Claim Gift Aid from your donations
Gift Aid can increase the value of individual donations by 28%. Claiming back the tax is straightforward. Furthermore, Gift Aid is open to all UK taxpayers and is a flexible scheme that can be applied to one-off or regular donations.
Gift Aid allows charities to reclaim the basic rate of tax on donations from individuals regardless of how small the donation is.
The first step is to contact the Inland Revenue to register for tax purposes and request a reference number.
Then ask your donors to fill out a Gift Aid declaration form to confirm that they are a UK taxpayer. Declarations can apply to future donations and can be backdated to 6 April 2000.
You can download a sample declaration form from the Inland Revenue website.
Make sure to keep simple paper or computer records, showing that your donors have agreed that you can reclaim their tax.
Finally, you can claim the tax back from the Inland Revenue manually, or through specialist organisations such as Charities Aid Foundation .
Consultation Paper
NCVO has put together some information to help people respond to a consultation paper on Gift Aid commissioned by the Treasury.
For more information, log on to Speak Out!