# Higher rate taxpayers fail to reclaim £200 million in relief

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/01/19/higher-rate-taxpayers-fail-reclaim-200-million-relief/
- Published: 2009-01-19T11:25:14+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**Half of all higher rate taxpayers are unaware they can reclaim 20% personal tax
relief on their charitable donations in their self assessment tax return, according
to research commissioned by the Charities Aid Foundation.**

The difference between 20% and 40% tax paid on donations can either be given to 
a charity, or claimed back by the donor. If the relief is given to charity, for 
every £100 donated the charity will receive £160.20.

In 2007/8 [£230 million was returned by HMRC](http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/charities/table10-2.pdf)
to higher rate taxpayers in tax relief on charitable donations.

## Advertisement

The research was carried out by GfK NOP amongst 243 higher rate taxpayers. It found
that the process of giving personal tax relief directly back to charity through 
their self-assessment tax return is actually putting off some higher rate tax payers.

Although 52% initially said they were likely to give their tax relief directly back
to charity, once the process was explained in full, only one in four (24%) said 
they would.

The research also found that only two-fifths (39%) of those who were aware of this
tax break had actually reclaimed their personal tax relief in the past. However,
60% of those previously unaware said they would now reclaim this relief.

For every £1,000 donated to charity, the government will add £282.00 through Gift
Aid. The 20% personal tax relief on the entire original donation (original tax-break
included) is worth a further £250, and if this is also returned to charity by the
taxpayer, an extra £70 is automatically added to it through Gift Aid. This means
that for every £1,000 donation by a higher rate taxpayer £1,602 can go to charity.

Sheila Hooper, Marketing Director at CAF, said: “With over half saying that they
would be likely to give this tax relief back to charity, charities across the UK
are potentially missing out millions of pounds at a time when they are ever more
stretched financially”.

She added that a CAF Charity Account or Trust could help higher-rate taxpayers maximise
their charitable donations in this regard. Its regular statements, just like a bank
account, are designed to help make it easier to fill out the self-assessment tax
return and claim the 20% personal tax relief.

www.cafonline.org

Photo: [Jam_90s on Flickr.com](http://www.flickr.com/photos/zerospin/2303706153)

 * **[John Lewis introduces CAF Account option on wedding lists](https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/04/03/john-lewis-introduces-caf-account-option-wedding-lists/)**(
   3 April 2009)
 * **[Give charity bank accounts automatic compensation, urges CAF](https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/04/15/give-charity-bank-accounts-automatic-compensation-urges-caf/)**(
   15 April 2009)
 * **[Three new trustees at Charities Aid Foundation](https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/08/03/three-new-trustees-charities-aid-foundation/)**(
   3 August 2009)

## Comments

### By: admin

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/01/19/higher-rate-taxpayers-fail-reclaim-200-million-relief/#comment-3477
- Published: 2009-01-19T11:33:15+00:00

Can charities do anything about this before the self-assessment deadline on 31 January
2009?

I can’t remember if you can resubmit your self-assessment if you’ve submitted it
already.

However, given that so many people do submit their tax-return late or at the last
minute, perhaps it _is_ worth an email (and a more general Twitter message?) to 
higher rate taxpayers reminding them of this opportunity?

If that’s not possible, then all charities can do is plan to remind their higher
rate supporters later this year when the next self-assessment period gets underway.

### By: admin

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/01/19/higher-rate-taxpayers-fail-reclaim-200-million-relief/#comment-3478
- Published: 2009-01-20T11:51:35+00:00

I asked CAF for their advice on what charities could do and how to communicate with
donors about this.

They said: “urge them to donate their relief, make it as easy as possible by giving
donors their HMRC tax code for their charity. Find out how the self-assessment tax
return works and explain in clear, plain English to their HRTP donors how to gift
their tax relief to them”.