What is Gift Aid?
Gift Aid allows UK charities to claim back the basic rate tax already paid on donations by the donor.
This means we can claim back from the government on your behalf 25p for every £1 donated, boosting the value of the donation by a quarter.
How does Gift Aid work?
When a UK taxpayer gives a gift of money to a charity, tax has already been paid on that money. Because you are exempt from tax, we can claim this money back from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and give it to you.
Read more about how Gift Aid works in the HMRC Gift Aid toolkit.
How is Gift Aid calculated?
Get ready for the maths – you may need a calculator for this one.
Under HMRC’s Gift Aid scheme, charities can reclaim an amount equal to basic rate tax (20%) on the amount of the donation, plus basic rate tax already paid by that taxpayer on that donation. To do this, you need to use a ‘grossing up’ fraction.
Let’s take a £100 donation as an example.
The fraction applied to calculate Gift Aid is 100 x 20/80. This is 25% of £100 which equals £25.
Why are some donations not eligible for Gift Aid?
Donations from non-UK taxpayers are not eligible for Gift Aid.
HMRC regulations also mean that we can’t reclaim Gift Aid on a donation if the donor told us that:
- the donation was on behalf of someone else or a group of people
- the donation was on behalf of a company
- the donation was to a family member or friend doing an event where the charity is contributing to their costs
- the donation was made in return for goods, rights or services.
Someone made a mistake when making their donation and Gift Aid hasn’t been claimed – what can I do?
We ask everyone making a donation a set of questions to find out if their donation is eligible for Gift Aid, but sometimes mistakes happen.
Once a donation has been made it isn’t possible to adjust the Gift Aid on it.
Instead, we can refund the donation so the person can donate again.
