Gift Aid

To claim Gift Aid, we simply need your full name and home address and a donation made from a personal bank or building society account.

If you are paying less Income Tax or Capital Gains Tax than the amount of Gift Aid claimed on all your donations in that tax year, it’s your responsibility to repay any difference. This is currently 25p for every £1 you give.

You can download our Gift Aid Declaration Form here.

Please note: Once you have become a Gift Aid donor, please let us know if you stop paying tax or if you change your name/address so that we can update our records. We can’t claim Gift Aid on donations from company accounts. The donation must be your own money and not the proceeds of a collection.

Under UK law, certain donations are not eligible for Gift Aid. If your donation falls into any of the following categories, Gift Aid shouldn’t be claimed:

• Donations made by anyone who is not a UK taxpayer.*
• Donations made on behalf of someone else or a group of people, for example, you collect money from your friends and family and then make a bulk donation. HMRC needs a Gift Aid declaration from each of the donors contributing to the collection.
• Donations made in return for something, for example, you are making a donation in return for a ticket to attend an event, most purchases of goods, the purchase of goods at an auction or buying a raffle ticket, or playing our Weekly Lottery.

*If you are either not a UK taxpayer, or if you pay less Income Tax and/or Capital Gains Tax in the current tax year than the amount claimed on all your donations, HMRC may require you to pay the difference.

You may still be paying tax on a private pension plan or a savings account, or Capital Gains Tax if you sell either some property or shares. You are still eligible if you have paid enough tax during the year to cover the amount we are reclaiming on your donations.

You can support as many UK charities as you like through Gift Aid. All you need to do is to return a declaration to each charity that you support and ensure that you are paying enough tax during the year to cover your total annual donations.

No. You just need to fill out a Gift Aid Declaration Form and date it. This will then cover donations you have already made to Dr Kershaw’s Hospice and any donations you make for the next four years. There is no extra paperwork – our team will deal with the tax office to reclaim the tax. All we need is your Gift Aid Declaration Form returned to the Hospice.

As a higher rate taxpayer, when you donate, the charity will claim Gift Aid at the basic rate of tax (currently 20%) on your donation. The good news is, you can claim the difference between the higher rate you pay (40% or 45%) and the basic rate on your donation. This applies across the UK, including Scotland.

To claim this additional relief:

• If you file a Self Assessment tax return, complete the charitable giving section.
• If you don’t file a tax return, contact HMRC directly to notify them of your donations. This can be done via their helpline or your personal tax account online.

Remember, claims must be submitted by 31 January following the end of the tax year in which the donation was made.

Yes, but if you do so, we will not be able to claim Gift Aid. If you do choose to provide your information, we will only use your details if you give permission and it will not be passed on to other organisations.

No. Please do not fill in donation details on behalf of your sponsors. For legal reasons, the Gift Aid declaration needs to be in the handwriting of the person ticking the Gift Aid box. For the same reason, all details need to be handwritten and not typed.

Remind your sponsors that Gift Aid means UK taxpayers can add an extra 25% to their sponsorship at no extra cost to them.

To allow us to claim this essential additional income, your sponsors must:

• Tick the Gift Aid box on your sponsorship form when they sponsor you (but only if they are tax payers)
• Write their full name and title
• Include their home address (house number/name and postcode is the minimum requirement we need to be able to claim Gift Aid)
• Fill in the ‘date paid’ box on the sponsorship form when they give you their donation; avoid ditto (“”) marks. If a number of sponsors live at the same address, they must each complete the address and postcode fields; the name, amount, address and postcode fields must be filled out in the sponsors own handwriting. Donations must be made individually to claim Gift Aid, you cannot make joint donations, for example from Mr and Mrs Smith, as the HMRC needs to determine who the taxpayer is.