Gift aiding

Charities are going to miss out if cashless goes ahead. There is usually a donation box on the counter in which people put their change. So it's even more important to use Giftaid if you can.

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You can always raise the amount you give to the charity, of course...

Perhaps people who would rather the Treasury had Gift Aid money might like to contemplate how much it must cost to subsidise the restaurants in the Houses of Parliament. And what MPs’ expenses cost. Yes, lots of ways the Treasury could spend that Gift Aid money you deny the charity.

Germanshepherdsmum

I always make a point of increasing a charitable donation with Gift Aid. It’s so important for charities which are wholly reliant on donations. The government has quite enough tax from most of us without looking at Gift Aid as depriving them of more. If you have chosen a charity to which to donate you are likely to support its aims and the way it spends its income. If you refuse to use Gift Aid so that the government has extra money to spend, how can you possibly know that it will go on essential services? I would rather give to a charity than further enrich the Treasury any day.

This^

If you gift aid to a charity do you have to remember the details for the annual tax form?

That's wonderful! Your donations to Mercy in Action have made a significant impact, and it's amazing to see the extra £133 in Gift Aid they received thanks to your contributions. Your generosity and thoughtfulness are truly inspiring. Keep up the great work!

Mogsmaw

I think something we should all think about is , gift aid isn’t a “gift” it’s a diversion.
I heard this on a radio discussion about tax. The expert said she always refuses because she believes the elected government should decide how tax revenue is spent, not a charity.
Anything diverted by gift aid is no available for the essential services we all take for granted.
Perhaps this is why some people are refusing as they know it will eventually effect everyone’s pension

That’s how we see it, Mogsmaw. We gift aid to some specific things but not to donations to charity shops or some regular donations. We both see being able to pay tax as a privilege, not a burden.

Yongy

We donate online quite generously to the charities of our choice and never put the money in buckets etc. We never put clothes in bags which are pushed through the letterbox either, we prefer to take them to the charity shop.

But my point is do you gift aid your donation ie the money the charities raise from selling your donated clothes?

We donate online quite generously to the charities of our choice and never put the money in buckets etc. We never put clothes in bags which are pushed through the letterbox either, we prefer to take them to the charity shop.

Nannarose

I think the point about entry to various places is this:
You can only 'gift aid' a donation.
So if entry was priced at say, £10, you can't 'gift aid' that.
If priced at £10 +£2 donation, you can 'gift aid' the £2.
I have found it very confusing, and the first time a volunteer explained it to me, she got it wrong, which didin't help.

I broadly agree with Mogsmaw's point. I was brought up to both volunteer, and donate to charity, and I do. But we are now too reliant on the patchwork of charities that are filling gaps without proper overall planning.

Not so Nannarose. My post and RosiesMaw are correct - when a donation is made in addition to the entry fee the full amount, £12 in your example, qualifies for Gift Aid.

I make a distinction about which charities to gift aid.
For instance, yes to our local hospice which largely relies on charitable donation. I know from experience that it's an essential service.
But no to the opera company whose productions I sometimes attend. It's a luxury. Maybe I'm wrong, but I kind of think the government needs that bit of my tax more than the opera company.

If anyone's circumstances change they should let the charity know that from whichever tax year you'll not be able to gift aid
When you fill in the declaration it says to do that if you are no longer eligible to gift aid donations.

I always donate to Sue Ryder and gift aid in my husband’s name. They must think that he’s a cross- dresser as it’s always purely female clothes! He never parts with anything until it’s fit for the dustbin. Jeans go from best, to old, to gardening, to working on the car , to the bin!

Needless I should say !

I have gift aided for many years, but was a slap in the face in my local hospice shop. On taking a few really good clothing items into the shop, lady couldn't find my number with my address.
"Oh well" says she, "you've not brought much in, so won't make much difference". Thank you says myself, I won't bother bringing anything else in then. Bye.
Endless to say I'll stick to my other local charity shop.

We don't ask for a signature at the charity I volunteer for and are happy for you to put your donation in your spouse's name. Giving a name and address is seen as agreeing to gift aid. You can simply say yes when donating over the phone.

I think the one you went to HarmonyPuss are being jobsworths and are losing out on extra funds.

Yes done this a long long time ago. I think most people do this. Always tick gift aid box as well if it's there

@pittcity
^The only criteria is that you must pay income tax to the value or more of the gift aid claimed.
For example Maw needed to have paid at least £133 in income tax that year.
I pay no income tax so I put my gift aid in DH's name.
You need to register with each charity separately. They assign you a number which is added to your donations. HMRC are notified when one of these items sells and they donate 25% more on top of the selling price.

I use the app "My Charity Shop" which translates your gift aid number into a bar code.^

There's is a problem with using someone else's name when you go into a charity shop for the first time, because they need a signature.
Yes, I know you could probably scribble anything on their paperwork but (definitely around where I live) they quickly pick up on it if you put MR instead of MRS/MS/MISS on the forms.

I went into a shop a couple of days ago, filled in their (electronic terminal) form, put MR Harmonypuss, and was quickly told I couldn't do it. I tried explaining that I'm not a taxpayer but my DS is (same address etc), but they wouldn't allow me to do it, so they will miss out on a nice chunk of Gift Aid from the very valuable books I gave them. I should probably have taken my donations away from them and given them to another charity that we're already signed up with and will accept my donations in my DS's name (he pays loads of tax, so there would never be an issue with him having not paid enough to cover the GA), but the books were far too heavy for me to take back from them and lug them back to my car again.

As someone who has dealt with gift aid for a charity, just a reassurance that the charity dies not know anything about your financial affairs apart from that say you've made a £20 donation, that you have paid £20 in tax. The other thing is that it reduces the amount of tax you pay that year.
If you do your return and pre gift aid you are due to pay £40, but you have made a donation, you only are due to pay £20 tax ( so it is a way to make a further donation to the charity) if you donated £40 over the year, no tax due, legally.
As well as being extra funds to the charity, gift aid income is unrestricted funds. So much charity income in the form of grants has to be spent on a particular thing, quite rightly, if you get a grant to do a particular project, you have to spend it on that. Unrestricted funds can be used for other things, such as running costs, or projects that are not as attractive to grant funders
If you can gift aid something, a donation, or whatever then do gift Aid
Don't get too hung up on how much a shop raises on your donation, it might have been v dear, and you lived it, but things are only worth what people are willing to pay. It's better than putting it in landfill isn't it
If you think you can do better with selling the stuff, just sell the stuff, and donate the money (and gift aid the donation!)

I agree!

I always make a point of increasing a charitable donation with Gift Aid. It’s so important for charities which are wholly reliant on donations. The government has quite enough tax from most of us without looking at Gift Aid as depriving them of more. If you have chosen a charity to which to donate you are likely to support its aims and the way it spends its income. If you refuse to use Gift Aid so that the government has extra money to spend, how can you possibly know that it will go on essential services? I would rather give to a charity than further enrich the Treasury any day.

I think the point about entry to various places is this:
You can only 'gift aid' a donation.
So if entry was priced at say, £10, you can't 'gift aid' that.
If priced at £10 +£2 donation, you can 'gift aid' the £2.
I have found it very confusing, and the first time a volunteer explained it to me, she got it wrong, which didin't help.

I broadly agree with Mogsmaw's point. I was brought up to both volunteer, and donate to charity, and I do. But we are now too reliant on the patchwork of charities that are filling gaps without proper overall planning.

I think something we should all think about is , gift aid isn’t a “gift” it’s a diversion.
I heard this on a radio discussion about tax. The expert said she always refuses because she believes the elected government should decide how tax revenue is spent, not a charity.
Anything diverted by gift aid is no available for the essential services we all take for granted.
Perhaps this is why some people are refusing as they know it will eventually effect everyone’s pension

RosiesMaw, I volunteer in a charity shop and when people bring in donations and haven’t got their Gift Aid details on the bag I weigh up whether to ask if they are tax payers or not as I always feel it’s a bit intrusive. If they are and have just forgotten they usually feel pleased to be reminded that their donation will raise an extra 25%. If not usually it’s ok but sometimes it feels a bit awkward.
25% extra makes a huge difference to donations particularly high value ones like designer goods or expensive branded household goods, unopened good branded perfumes. We are very fortunate to have celebrity donors and influencers who are given things which they would never use.