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The Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme & how schools can use this

 

GIft AId Overview

 

You can claim back 25p every time an individual donates £1 to your school (if registered as a charity or trist). This is called Gift Aid.

 

You must be recognised as a charity for tax purposes, but most schools register their school fund as a charity.

 

You can claim Gift Aid online - you should get your payment within 5 weeks.

 

The donor must:

  • have paid at least as much in Income Tax or Capital Gains Tax in that tax year as you want to claim in Gift Aid

  • make a Gift Aid declaration that gives you permission to claim it . If the donor hasn’t made a declaration you may still be able to claim on cash donations of £20 or less.

 

You CAN claim for

  • funds from sponsored challenges

  • charity membership fees

  • collections

  • selling goods on behalf of individuals, eg through a charity shop

  • charity events or to view charity property

  • charity auctions

  • volunteer expenses donated back to your charity

  • funds raised through charities involved in running schools

 

You  CAN'T  claim on donations:

  • from limited companies

  • made through Payroll Giving

  • that are a payment for goods or services or made because your charity SC bought goods and services

  • that started as loans, but no longer need to be repaid

  • where the donor gets a ‘benefit’ over a certain limit

  • of shares

  • from charity cards or of vouchers, eg Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) vouchers

  • of membership fees to CASCs

  • you got before you were a recognised charity or CASC

 

Small donations scheme

You may be able to claim 25% on cash donations of £20 or less, even if you don’t have a Gift Aid declaration.

This is called the Gift Aid small donations scheme (GASDS). You can claim up to £1,250 in a tax year.

 

Who can claim

Your charity or CASC must have claimed Gift Aid:

  • in the same tax year as you want to claim GASDS

  • in at least 2 of the last 4 tax years (but without a 2 year gap between the claims)

  • without getting a penalty in the last 2 tax years

 

What you can claim

Your GASDS claim can’t be more than 10 times your Gift Aid claim, eg you can claim on £1,000 worth of donations through GASDS if you’ve received £100 of Gift Aid donations in the same tax year.

You can claim on donations that are eligible for Gift Aid, but not membership fees.

Collections in community buildings - Your charity might be able to claim more on donations collected in a community building, eg a village hall, church, mosque or synagogue. There must have been 10 or more people at the collection.

 

Keeping records

You need to record the:

  • total cash donations collected

  • date of the collection

  • date it was paid into a bank account

For collections in community buildings you’ll also need to record:

  • the address of the community building (including postcode)

  • the type of event

  • an estimate of how many people were at the event

How to claim

Claim under GASDS in the same way as Gift Aid.  You can claim Gift Aid using Charities Online with:

  • eligible software, like a database

  • a spreadsheet of your donations

 

The Private Funds Manager from Istek UK Limited manages Gift Aid and produces the required spreadsheet. For further information please visit our website on www.istekuk.com or call 01722 413255

 

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