How to claim Gift Aid for your charity

Gift Aid eligibility

Who is eligible to claim Gift Aid?

Both the fundraising organisation and the donor need to meet some eligibility criteria to be able to claim Gift Aid.

Registered charities and community amateur sports clubs (CASCs) can claim Gift Aid. If you aren't one of these, you cannot claim Gift Aid from HMRC. You also need to be registered as a charity for tax purposes.

The key condition for the donor is that they must have paid at least the same amount of tax that the charity will claim back. For example, on a £20 donation, the charity can claim back £5. The donor needs to have paid at least £5 in tax in the UK that financial year.

Donation types

Which donations can I claim Gift Aid on?

You can claim Gift Aid on most donations if the donor has made a Gift Aid declaration. However, there are some types of donations that you cannot claim Gift Aid on:

• Donations made in return for something, like tickets, a product or access to somewhere
• Donations made on behalf of someone else
• Donations made by a company
• Membership payments made to CASCs
• "Minimum donations" that are made when the donor is not given a choice as to whether or not they donate

Can I claim Gift Aid on sponsored events?

Deposits or registration fees people pay to take part in an event aren't eligible for Gift Aid.

If you pay for a participant's flights and/or hotels as part of an event, you can't claim Gift Aid on donations from "connected people". HMRC explains what this means here.

Gift Aid declarations

What is a Gift Aid declaration?

Donors make a Gift Aid declaration in order to allow you to claim back tax on their donation. You must keep a record of the declarations. Some software, like Dugood, keeps records of the declarations for you.

Declarations can be made:

• In writing
• Online
• Verbally

Regardless of how the declaration is made, you need to collect the same information from the donor.

What a Gift Aid declaration must include

The declaration must include:

• Your charity or CASC's name
• The donor's full name
• The donor's home address - at least the first line and postcode
• Whether the declaration covers just one donation, or every past and future donation from the donor
• A statement that the donor wants Gift Aid to apply - this is usually achieved with a tick box
• Text telling the donor that they must pay the same, or more Income Tax or Capital Gains Tax as all charities and CASCs will claim on their donations. You must also tell the donor that if they don't, they are liable to pay the difference

How to claim

How do I claim Gift Aid?

You can claim back Gift Aid online at GOV.UK. Once you have added Charities Online to your HMRC online account, you're able to use the online service.

You will need to upload a 'schedule spreadsheet' that lists up to 1,000 donations you want to claim Gift Aid on.

What is a schedule spreadsheet?

A schedule spreadsheet contains the details of up to 1,000 donations you want to claim Gift Aid on. You share this spreadsheet with HMRC when making your claim.

What does a schedule spreadsheet include?

For each donation, you need to include:

• The donor's title
• The donor's first and last name
• The donor's house name or number
• The donor's postcode
• Whether or not the donation came from a sponsored event
• The date of the donation
• The total amount of the donation

Remember that you can only include donations you have a valid Gift Aid declaration for.

What are aggregated donations?

You can combine donations of under £20 from different donations and show them as one line on your spreadsheet. The total amount can't come to more than £1,000.

Don't enter the name of a specific donor. Instead, enter a generic description like "Coffee morning donors". Provide the date of the last donation.

You can't combine (aggregate) donations from different accounting periods.

Multiple donations from the same person

You can combine multiple donations from the same person onto one line. Add them all together and use the date of the most recent donation.

You can't combine (aggregate) donations from different accounting periods.

Schedule spreadsheet template

Some software, like Dugood, can generate your schedule spreadsheet for you. If you need to do it yourself, download our template: