Gift Aid software for charities: what it has to do
HMRC's rules are short, but a claim is only as good as the declarations behind it. What Gift Aid software should handle, and when a spreadsheet is enough.
Gift Aid adds 25p to every £1 a UK taxpayer gives, and claiming it costs nothing but time. The time is the problem: declarations collected in different places, addresses missing a house number, and a claim spreadsheet assembled by hand. This is what software for it needs to do, and when you can manage without.
How a claim works
A charity claims online through Charities Online, either with eligible software such as a database or by uploading HMRC's spreadsheet. The spreadsheet takes up to 1,000 donations; a claim for more than 1,000 needs software (GOV.UK: how to claim, the schedule spreadsheet). You have four years from the end of the financial period in which you received a donation to claim on it, and HMRC pays an online claim within about four weeks.
What Gift Aid software should do
- Collect the declaration with the gift. One question at checkout, with the explanation HMRC requires, saved against the donor rather than in a separate list.
- Check it before it counts. A full name, a house number or name, and a postcode in a valid format. Our guide to what a valid declaration needs lists where they usually break.
- Know which gifts are eligible. Covered by a declaration, not refunded, not already claimed, and not a gift where the donor received something in return.
- Build the claim for you. The eligible gifts for a period, in HMRC's format, ready to submit.
- Show what was held back, and why. A list of gifts left out of the claim with the reason, so someone can fix them. This is where most unclaimed money is recovered.
- Keep the records. Every claim, what was in it and when HMRC paid, kept for as long as HMRC can ask: up to six years for a charitable company.
- Bring old declarations with you. If you move system, the declarations have to move too, or past gifts can't be claimed.
When a spreadsheet is enough
If you take a few hundred Gift Aid donations a year, from one source, HMRC's spreadsheet and a careful afternoon will do. The case for software grows with the number of places gifts arrive from (website, bank transfers, collections, events) and the number of people who touch the records.
What to ask a supplier
- Does it charge a percentage of the Gift Aid it claims? Some platforms take 5% (see the comparison).
- Does it claim for gifts that came in other ways, such as cash, cheques and bank transfers, or only its own online gifts?
- Can you see and fix the declarations it held back?
- Can you export every declaration and claim if you leave?
How we do it
In our platform the declaration is asked once, at the gift, and checked as it is typed. The Gift Aid screen shows what is ready to claim, what is held back with a button to fix each one, and the claims already made. It makes HMRC's own schedule file, filled in and ready to upload to Charities Online; nothing is sent to HMRC without you. We take no percentage of your Gift Aid.