Create Gift Aid declarations for your donors as an intermediary
Intermediaries that collect donations for charities can get authority from a donor to Gift Aid all their donations in a year.
Overview
Donating through Gift Aid means charities can claim an extra 25p from the government for every £1 donated.
From 6 April 2017, donors can give intermediaries the authority to create Gift Aid declarations on their donations for the rest of the tax year.
This process won’t affect any current or future enduring Gift Aid declarations.
Alternatively, intermediaries can create Gift Aid declarations for each donation.
Ask your donors for authority to apply Gift Aid
You can get authorisation to make Gift Aid declarations at any time during the tax year.
You need to tell the donor that if they pay less Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax than the amount of Gift Aid on their donations in a year, they’ll have to pay the difference .
Once you’ve got authorisation from the donor you can make Gift Aid declarations for the rest of the tax year or until they cancel it.
If you get authority on or after the 1 March, you can make Gift Aid declarations for the remaining tax year and all of the next tax year, which starts on 6 April.
Allow donors to cancel
Donors must be able to remove their authorisation at any time by contacting you.
They must be able to set a date to cancel their authorisation. If they don’t specify a date, their authorisation should end immediately.
Send an annual statement to your donor
You need to produce an annual statement for the donor between the 5 April and 31 May for the previous tax year. You must send the statement directly to the donor or tell them it has been produced and provide instructions on how to access it.
You don’t need to send a statement to donors who:
- only make one Gift Aid donation in a tax year
- donated less than £20 in total in a tax year
You must include in the annual statement:
- the total amount of the donations that were Gift Aided
- the maximum amount of Gift Aid that can be claimed on their Gift Aided donations
- an explanation that donations directly to charities or to other intermediaries are not included in the statement
- an explanation that if the donor pays less Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax than the amount of Gift Aid claimed in a year, they’ll have to pay the difference
What to record
You need to keep certain records about the donor’s authorisation.
You must keep a record of the:
- date authorisation was given and the donor’s name and address
- date of any cancellations and the donor’s name and address
- explanation that the donor must pay more tax than the Gift Aid on their donations and the date this was given
- annual statement or how you made the annual statement available to the donor
You must keep records of these events for 6 tax years from the end of the year when they were given or sent.
You’ll need to provide these to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) on request. You can receive a £300 fine plus an additional daily penalty if you fail to provide these records.
Penalties
You may be charged for any failure to keep records or issue a statement.
You can be fined £50 for each failure to keep a record or issue a statement. You can be fined up to a total of £3,000 in a tax year. This cap does not apply to the daily penalty for not providing records to HMRC.