Gift Aid
As a result of new guidance from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), all parishes will need to use new wording in all Gift Aid declarations that are signed after the end of this year (2012). However, parishes are encouraged to make the changes as soon as possible.
Key points
- The key change is that Gift Aid declarations must stress that donors must pay enough tax to cover all of their charitable donations and not just the donations made to a particular charity at a particular time.
- This will mean having a new declaration for Gift Aid envelopes, other one-off declarations and also enduring declarations accompanying regular giving. You may also need to change anything that is held on websites.
- Enduring declarations already held do not need to be changed, but the requirement that donors must pay sufficient tax to cover all their charitable donations still applies, (and has always been the case).
- As a reminder, any references to the amount reclaimed should be 25p for every £1 donated or 25%. Any references to reclaiming 28p for every £1 donated, or 28% are out of date and must be changed. 5. You should also check that any references to back claims are for four years, not the previous six.
HMRC’s revised wording sets out that:
- the donor must have paid enough UK Income or Capital Gains Tax to cover all of their charitable donations to charities and Community Amateur Sports Clubs and
- that other taxes such as Council Tax and VAT do not qualify Model declarations are offered using the revised wording for regular donations (overleaf), and for one-off donations and envelopes (below).
