# Rules relaxed on Gift Aid donations by phone and web

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2005/10/09/rules-relaxed-gift-aid-donations-phone-and-web/
- Published: 2005-10-09T23:00:00+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

![](https://www.fundraising.co.uk/files/images/news/3649.gif)

The Chancellor Gordon Brown MP has announced that from next month charities will
no longer have to secure written consent from donors giving by telephone or online
in order to claim Gift Aid tax back on their donations.
Speaking in Edinburgh on
Friday at the The Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund conference, the Chancellor
acknowledged that giving by telephone and Internet was becoming increasingly popular
and that the rules needed to be relaxed. “It is in recognition of the extent of 
immediate giving by phone and internet”, he said, “that we are making it easier 
for donations to… all charities, even when made by telephone, to attract tax relief
and thus extra money for the cause.”

From 1 November 2005 HM Revenue and Customs will remove the requirement on charities
to write to each individual donor to confirm that Gift Aid can be claimed following
their telephone donation. However, charities will still need to maintain satisfactory
records linking the donor to the making of a declaration.

The current criteria for a qualifying donation state that the donor must make an“
appropriate declaration”, and the current regulations “The Donations to Charity 
by Individuals (Appropriate Declarations) Regulations 2000” set out the requirements
for such declarations. Where a declaration is given orally, such as over the telephone,
the current regulations require the charity to send a written statement to the donor
giving them a 30-day period within which to cancel the declaration.

## Advertisement

 [⌊Posthub advert. You create the campaign. We'll handle the postal journey. Get started at post-hub.co.uk.⌉](https://fundraising.co.uk/ads/posthub-20261007-300x250/)

According to HM Revenue and Customs, the provisional figure for Gift Aid donations
in 2004/05 is £2,213 million, net of tax. A further £625 million in tax was paid
to charities on these donations.

The change in Gift Aid rules was initiated following the public response to the 
South Asian tsunami disaster of December 2004. Ironically it will not come fast 
enough for the current emergency appeals for northern Parkistan and India following
the earthquake at the weekend.

While this development made front page news in The Times last Saturday, some fundraisers
have suggested there could be a hidden cost to charities in adhering to it. Will
the ‘satisfactory records’ that need to be maintained in the case of a telephone
donation be audio recordings of the donation being made? If so, then charities or
their agencies are going to have to start storing, managing and retrieving vast 
banks of audio data for several years. It is to be hoped that a documentary record
of the transaction will satisfy HM Revenue and Customs.

 * **[10 Kent charities win £1,000](https://fundraising.co.uk/2005/10/16/10-kent-charities-win-1000/)**(
   16 October 2005)
 * **[£2,000 a day to win to donate to charity](https://fundraising.co.uk/2005/10/16/2000-day-win-donate-charity/)**(
   16 October 2005)
 * **[ICSA to host seminar on managing charities' reputation](https://fundraising.co.uk/2005/10/18/icsa-host-seminar-managing-charities039-reputation/)**(
   18 October 2005)