12 replies to this topic

[Rea]

As a registered charity do any of you claim gift aid?
A parent asked me today if we claim it but we dont, she runs the local Rainbow group and gift aid gives her about £300 per year!
I cant believe we havent thought of it before. Or do any of you know a reason why none of our accountants or payroll people wouldnt have mentioned it?
I'm phoning HMRC tomorrow butwondered if thee was anything I should know

[hali]

yes the nursery i managed did gift aid

[scottiedog]

Hi Rea,

Interesting thought. Please let us know how you get on. Every little helps.

Thanks
Scottiedog

Edited by scottiedog, 11 January 2011 - 08:20 PM.

[holly35]

We use it. We can only claim it on donations made to the preschool so fees are unfortunately out In reality we don't make that much as it requires parents to complete a form either with each donation or to put their name on each donation and complete one form (which covers all their donations). This kind of makes a mockery of the "donation" as we know who has given what. It might work better in a setting which had a regular donation system rather than our ad hoc one. On the other hand it costs nothing to set up and if you can think of a way to organise it it might be free money - always useful!

[Inge]

looked into it but there was no reason to register.. donations being hard to come by..

but I do wonder how all the places that encourage gift aid on entrance fees manage... do they all claim it as a donation.. but then I often get a years entrance for the one payment if I do that.


and those who donate to charity shops don't forget you can gift aid that too, we do to a couple of the shops, we signed up and they put a number on our donations.. once a year we get a letter saying how much extra they have gained by it and if higher rat tax payer how to clam the rest back - obviously to donate to them.

[holly35]

I know a large local attraction near us now charges 2 different fees for entry. One is for those doing gift aid and the difference is what is gift aid eligible. So for eg the entry is £23.45 and the gift aid entry is £25. Seems cheeky but I don't see many people asking to pay the lesser amount. Now actually I wonder if we could do that on fees.....?

[mps09]

We claim gift aid for our yearly sponsored event - well worth it for very little effort.......

Your sponsor form has to include a specific declaration and then each sponsor just has to tick a box to say they want the gift aid claimed, plus give their proper full name and postal address including post code...

Then once I year, I copy out all these details and send to hmrc - takes about an hour.... and last year we received a cheque for £140

[Fredbear]

Thanks for that tip certainly worth investigating further as every penny counts.

[mikee]

holly35, on Jan 11 2011, 20:48, said:

I know a large local attraction near us now charges 2 different fees for entry. One is for those doing gift aid and the difference is what is gift aid eligible. So for eg the entry is £23.45 and the gift aid entry is £25. Seems cheeky but I don't see many people asking to pay the lesser amount. Now actually I wonder if we could do that on fees.....?

I have looked into this and you can definately not claim Gift aid on fees as it is seen as a service provided and you cannot claim on providing a service. it's a real shame as it could make alot of money. You can only claim on donations.

[Rea]

Thanks guys. I knew there must have been a reason no-one had mentioned it to us. the lady I spoke to yesterday claims it on the fee's the Rainbows pay, so I still might look into it, just to see if theres a loop hole I can use.
Bet I cant find one though, but will post if I get anywhere.

[Beau]

When you go to Rainbows you pay a Membership Subsciption which is eligible for gift aid, fees (paying for a service) are not though. This is how they are able to do it.

[Rea]

Thanks Beau, that makes sense.

Now, how to make fee's look like membership!!

[lynned55]

We have been doing gift aid for a number of years now and make around 250/300 per year. Well worth doing- we have a regular fundraising 'donation from parents each term with a suggested amount of £20 per term or a one off payment of £50. We hav earound 75/80% of parents donating via this. We sometimes get other donations. I send a fundraising letter with a gift aid form when parents first start and then each term if appropriate. It is very little work for what can be a fairly good income. We have a named gift aid officer on our committee who deals with HMRC. Once a year I give her a list of names & the signed forms of those that have donated and how much. She did have HMRC ring her once and ask why all the amounts were the same over the year but they were fine once she explained what it was. However they are very strict rules over what is classed as a donation and what is a fee. Shame as imagine what we could make form our fees!! I have included our form we give out in case it is of any help to anyone. Just realised that these forms are our old ones an dboth have been updated this year. Maybe of help to someone though
 NEW_FUNDRAISING_LETTER_draft.doc   78.5K   13 downloads  giftaidformdraft.doc   64K   12 downloads