Gift Aid explained
Gift Aid gives 25% extra value to donations made to your favourite charities!
When a donation is made to your charity by a UK taxpayer, the donor will have already paid tax on his/her earnings. Gift Aid allows charities to claim back that tax from HM Revenue & Customs, which means that you could be receiving more money at no additional cost to the charity or to the donor – a win-win situation!
Currently the amount charities can claim back as gift aid is 25%. So for every £100 donation, charities could be claiming an extra £25. This is great news for charities as it makes donations go so much further!
The rules
There are a few basic rules that apply in order for charities to be able to claim back Gift Aid:
- Firstly, the charity must be registered with HM Revenue & Customs for charitable tax purposes.
- The person making the donation must be a UK taxpayer and have paid sufficient tax (as income tax and/or capital gains tax) to cover the amount that will be claimed by the charity in each tax year.
- Gift Aid cannot be claimed by the charity if the donation is being made in exchange for goods and services (e.g. raffles or tickets to an event). Donations made with someone else’s money are not Gift Aid-able either.
Setting up a Fundraising page and Gift Aid
When you set up a fundraising page on Charity Choice, we'll ask you whether the charity you're fundraising for has covered any of the costs involved in your event. This is because certain members of your family will not be able to Gift Aid their donations to your page if a charity pays for your travel or accommodation, for example. Donations made by spouses, parents, grandparents, siblings and lineal descendants are all ineligible for Gift Aid. But don't let that put your family off donating to your page - Charity Choice offer some of the lowest fees available and, more importantly, we give donors the choice of covering the card fees so that charities can benefit even more from their donation.
If you'd like some more information about Gift Aid for individuals, please visit:
