New HMRC guidance on Gift Aid on visitor donations

Howard Lake | 28 September 2005 | News

Legislation on Gift Aid on charity visitor admissions and memberships, which comes into effect on the 6 April 2006, was enacted in Finance No 2 Act 2005. In order to give charities time to prepare, ./guidance has now been published online by HM Revenue and Customs.

The new advice covers the circumstances in which charities can reclaim Gift Aid on donations that are made in place of an admission fee at a charity property. This property can be buildings, artefacts, plants, animals, grounds or other land property of a scientific nature, or works of art. although performances are excluded.

The legislation replaces an exemption that applied only to heritage and wildlife charities.

The new rules, effective from 6 April 2006, will broaden the scope of these charities’ exemption so that all charities which make an admission charge to the public view qualifying property can benefit from the exemption.

In particular, to qualify, the one of two conditions must be met. “Either the visitor makes a donation that is at least 10 per cent more than the admission charge for the equivalent right of admission. Or the donation secures admission to the property for a twelve-month period, for example through a season ticket or a membership scheme. Access should in general be unlimited whenever the property is open to the public during that 12 month period but charities may exclude from the right of admission up to 5 days in each 12-month period when the property is otherwise open to the public and still qualify.”

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.