Renewing tax relief on donations made easier
Howard Lake | 29 October 2019 | News
The Irish Revenue Commissioners have agreed to streamline the process for renewing tax relief on donations.
Following engagement with the Revenue by Charities Institute Ireland (CII) a set of guidelines have been developed for charities who benefit from the charitable donation scheme. The key change to the process is that telephone renewal is now acceptable to Revenue providing a set of criteria is adhered to.
Revenue have also committed to honouring renewals which took place before the revised guidance was issued in October 2018. For charities who use paper renewal, the donor signature remains a requirement.
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CII and its members highlighted that the previous process added a layer of complexity and additional cost to renewals. At present, Revenue’s preferred option for renewal of CHY forms is by paper, however, they are working with CII to identify and develop a suitable digital system and process within which donors can sign up to and renew CHY forms in respect of the Charity Tax Back scheme.
Charities may also use a telephone conversation recording system to renew a CHY Form. Where a charity opts to use a telephone conversation with the donor to renew a CHY Form there is a long list of conditions applicable, including permission from the donor to record their conversations.
Other conditions include evidence that the person renewing is authenticated as the taxpayer or holds an appropriate authorisation to act for the taxpayer and follow up correspondence should be sent by the charity to the donor along with any additional information regarding the scheme.
If charities have any queries on the Revenue administration of the Charitable Donation Scheme, they can contact the charities unit on 01 738 3680. Cii also provide a sample telephone renewal script on their website.
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.