Schedule spreadsheet to claim back tax on Gift Aid donations
Submit individual Gift Aid donations, aggregated donations and claims for sponsored events using Charities Online.
What to include
You must have valid Gift Aid declarations for all the donations you record in the schedule spreadsheet, which you should keep for your records.
You’ll need to enter each individual donor’s:
- title, using a maximum of 4 characters per line
- first name (or first initial) and last name, using a maximum of 35 characters per line
- house name or number
- postcode, using capital letters and include a space, for example, S19 2BD
- aggregated donations if applicable
- sponsored events
- donation date, using the format DD/MM/YY or enter the latest date in a series of donations made by the donor
- donation amount, without using £ signs and showing amounts to 2 decimal places, for example 200.00 not £200
If a field in the spreadsheet does not apply to you, leave it blank.
For a single donation, you need to include the date the donation was received. But if an individual donor makes regular donations to your charity or CASC, or if you’re submitting aggregated donations, enter the date of the last donation received.
You can also enter the total amount for the donor over the period you are claiming for. You may need to show a different date if these donations cover more than one accounting period.
You’ll need to find out the postcode for UK addresses either from the donor or by using the Royal Mail’s free online postcode finder, and note them in your records.
If the donor’s surname is double-barrelled, use a space instead of the hyphen, for example, enter Smith Davis not Smith-Davis.
Aggregated donations
You can ‘aggregate’ (add together) donations of £20 or less from different donors and show them as one entry on the spreadsheet. The total donation on one line cannot be higher than £1,000 and the total cannot include donations associated with admissions to charity visitor attractions.
To claim Gift Aid on aggregated donations, do not enter the name and address of individual donors as this will slow down your repayment claim. Instead you must enter:
- a simple description like ‘Thursday club donors’ in the ‘aggregated donations’ box (maximum of 35 characters)
- the date of the last donation
- the total amount raised
Only add together donations that were made within the same accounting period. Your accounting period ends on the date to which you prepare accounts, unless your organisation was set up by a trust deed or will or was established outside the UK. In those cases, your accounting period runs to 5 April.
Sponsored events
You’ll need to enter:
- ‘yes’ in the sponsored event box
- the date the sponsorship payments were received by the charity
- the total amount of all the Gift Aid donations raised by the participant
If you’re claiming Gift Aid on donations from a sponsored event, you do not need to include details of individual donors, unless an individual gives more than £500.
Show individual donations over £500 as a separate Gift Aid donation with the donor’s name and address. Do not enter ‘yes’ in the sponsored event box against individual donations.
If you’re adding together donations of less than £500 from sponsored events, enter the name, address and postcode of each participant in the event.
The address can be the participant’s home address, place of work or the address of a school if the participant is a child who has taken part in an event organised by a school.
Regular donations
Regular donations made by one person can be shown on one line. You can add them all together and enter just the date of the most recent donation. But only add together donations that were made within the same accounting period.
Your accounting period ends on the date to which you prepare accounts, unless your organisation was set up by a trust deed or will or was established outside the UK. In those cases, your accounting period runs to 5 April.
For example, if monthly payments of £10 are made by the same person from 10 July 2013 to 10 June 2016 and your accounting period is 30 June:
| Monthly payment | Latest date | Falls in accounting period to |
|---|---|---|
| £120 | 10 June 2014 | 30 June 2014 |
| £90 | 10 March 2015 | 30 June 2015 |
| £30 | 10 June 2015 | 30 June 2015 |
| £120 | 10 June 2016 | 30 June 2016 |
Over-claimed amounts
Use the schedule spreadsheet to tell HMRC about an error that meant you were overpaid last time you made a claim.
You must enter the amount of tax over-claimed, not the value of the donation in the correct field. This amount will then be deducted from the claim you’re submitting.
If the overpaid amount is more than the repayment claim you are making, then you will need to make an additional payment to HMRC.
Limit per spreadsheet
The Gift Aid donation schedule spreadsheet has a maximum of 1,000 lines, so you can only claim for 1,000 donations on one spreadsheet at one time. If you go over the maximum, the excess lines will not be attached as part of your claim.
However, you can submit as many online claims as you like, for example if you have 1,600 Gift Aid donations, you can submit two claims with 800 donations on each claim. You must have completed and submitted one online claim before you start a second one.
Get the right software
The schedule spreadsheet is written in OpenDocument format (ODF), a free format for spreadsheets used worldwide. Using ODF means the schedule spreadsheet can be opened with a variety of software programs.
Before you open the schedule spreadsheet, make sure that you have one of these software programs installed on your computer:
- Microsoft Excel — Microsoft Office 2010 for Microsoft Windows
- LibreOffice for Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS and Linux
If you use, Microsoft Excel you must download the correct schedule spreadsheet for MS Excel. Ensure your computer uses English UK. You can check this under ‘File > Options > Languages’.
If you use LibreOffice, you must download the LibreOffice schedule spreadsheet. Downloading LibreOffice is free and only takes a couple of minutes. Download the latest version of LibreOffice, you must download the English (GB) version. You can check this under ‘Tools > Options > Languages’.
Do not download the LibreOffice version of the schedule spreadsheet and then try to convert it to Microsoft Office or Excel (or vice versa). If you do, you may experience problems.
Mac users may need to install English GB. Do this by going to the LibreOffice website and clicking on ‘LibreOffice in other languages.’
Other ODF programs may allow you to open the schedule spreadsheet files, but they may not allow you to attach your spreadsheet to your online claim or view the contents in Charities Online.
Saving and submitting
When you have the appropriate software to open the schedule spreadsheets, save the spreadsheets onto to your computer. You can use them straight away.
Each worksheet in the schedule spreadsheet has a named tab at the bottom left. The tab name is: R68GAD_V1_00_0_EN (or CY for the Welsh version) - Gift Aid donation schedule spreadsheet. Do not change the name, or you will not be able to attach the schedule spreadsheet to the online form in Charities Online.
Spreadsheets saved in OpenDocument format have the suffix ‘.ods’ after their file name to show which format the document is saved in. For example, a file called ‘Gift Aid Claim 2013’ would be saved as ‘Gift Aid Claim 2013.ods’. If you change the suffix, you may experience problems when trying to upload your spreadsheet to Charities Online.
Download the schedule spreadsheet
Before you download the schedule spreadsheets, it’s important that you download and use the appropriate schedule spreadsheet version for your software.
If you use Microsoft Excel you must download the correct schedule spreadsheet for MS Excel. If you use LibreOffice, you must download the LibreOffice schedule spreadsheet.
Do not download the LibreOffice version of the schedule spreadsheet and then try to convert it to Microsoft Office or Excel or vice versa.
Download the Gift Aid schedule spreadsheet
Error Messages
If you receive an error message beginning ‘ASM’, make sure you have not copied and pasted into the Gift Aid spreadsheet, and that you have saved the file as an OpenDocument Spreadsheet.
If you receive any other type of system error, check that you have not typed any blank spaces into your spreadsheet, before or after donor information.
Updates to this page
Published 11 December 2014Last updated 20 August 2024 + show all updates
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The previous update to the 'What to include' section was made in error. This information has now been removed.
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The 'What to include' section has been updated to include a reminder that Gift Aid declarations require the donor's full name.
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The amount for aggregated donations has been changed from £30 to £20.
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Aggregated donations have been changed from £20 to £30.
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First published.