Increasing your Gift Aid take from higher rate taxpayers
Howard Lake | 25 November 2010 | Blogs
I know Gift Aid can seem dull, but it really is worth getting right, especially with regard to higher rate taxpayers. I picked up a good tip recently for charities looking to maximise their return from wealthier donors. It works like this.
Those donors who pay 40% or 50% tax can reclaim the difference between what they have paid in tax and the Gift Aid claimed by the charity. They reclaim this by inserting details of their donations on their annual tax return. However, it is also possible for them to nominate a charity (one only) to receive this rebate, using HMRC form “SA100 Charity” in their self assessment.
Some charities are making effective use of this rule by sending donors an SA100 Charity form towards the end of the calendar year, with their charity’s HMRC tax reference number already entered on it. This enables the donor very simply to assign their additional tax rebate to the charity when they complete their tax return (usually in January).
You may of course know some of your higher rate tax paying donors, but not in all cases, so how do you decide who should receive a form? Again, some charities are writing to all Gift Aid donors with a form, to ensure they reach all the higher rate tax payers. The cost of this is likely to be more than offset by the additional tax reclaim.
For further details see www.tax-effectivegiving.org.uk
To obtain the correct form, see www.hmrc.gov.uk/forms/sa100-charity.pdf
If you have donors who are higher rate tax payers, this is a real no brainer.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.