Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme: securing £2,000 from HMRC

Howard Lake | 3 April 2020 | Blogs

• Tagged with:
• Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme
• HMRC

HMRC have a most generous scheme which allows all charities to claim up to £2,000 of a Gift Aid type of payment. There is an imminent deadline for all charities to maximise any income from this if it is to include income from three years ago onwards.

This is known as Gift Aid on Small Donation Scheme (GASDS). It is paid on any and all impulse cash donations of £30 or less, up to a total of £8,000 in any single tax year, and is calculated at 25% of the amount collected. Simply put, you can claim up to £2,000 on any money you have raised on through bucket collections, tin shakers, collection boxes etc, totalling less than £8,000.
 
So what you have to do is go back through your records and find the amount that you have raised through simple impulse cash collections, in each tax year, with no record of the donors and consequently no Gift Aid claimed.
 
But you need to start with the amount collected in the tax year 6th April 2017 to 5th April 2018. Why this particular year? Because GASDS is calculated by tax year, and you can claim back for up to three years, which means 2017/18, 2018/19 and 2019/20.
 
But in a few days time, we will move into the new tax year which runs from 6th April 2020 to 5th April 2021, and GASDS will no longer apply for 2017/18.
 
BOTTOM LINE – You have until 5th April to get your charity an extra £2,000.
 
So what are you waiting for – get it now!
 

DISCLAIMER

 
Naturally nothing is that simple with HMRC and there are some requirements which, although relatively simple and straight forward, you need to be aware of.

GAIN  cannot be responsible for any action you take in this regard.

For more details you are advised to read HMRC’s Guidance Chapter 8: The Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme from 6 April 2017.
 
If you would like to know more about this, please feel free to call me on 07910 391 653 for an initial short chat and I can point you in the right direction. Of course there is no obligation and no charge for the call.
 
Barry Gower
GAIN – Gift Aid Consultants
51 Love Lane
Pinner
HA5 3EY
Tel  02088681307
Mob 07910391653
en*******@ga**.uk
 

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.