Claiming Gift Aid from Subscriptions

GASDS is for entirely that sort of donation and as long as its under £20, but in a bucket who knows, you’re fine.
As I say our church uses it for plate and ordinary collections, which are not part of the registered giving.

Add fund matching to a bagpack and whammo :slight_smile:

yeh ok i get that - but lets say in one bucket it has £125 collected

is that 7 claims, 6x for 19.99 and one for £5.06??

i understand it must be for less than £20 - but when a bag back collects in anything between £1500-2500 how is that claimed when it at best is 75x people each putting in £20 - we all know unlikley

I agree with @daws1159 here - I too remember seeing an email from HQAC specifically saying we weren’t eligible for this and not to try it?

Just did a search on Bodger for GASDS - there are plenty of copies available.

Interesting to see that some Sqns are successfully claiming it… wonder whether the letter is now out of date and has been superseded by further guidance from HMRC but HQAC haven’t caught up??

Read ACP10 chap. 3. 5. Says we can from Apr 2017 under community buildings element.

2 Likes

You claim on the whole amount as long as you fit the criteria for claiming, ie already claim GA and don’t exceed the limit specified for gasd. Records have to be kept which is for the CWC.

1 Like

I believe that initially GASDS had applied only to HQAC allowing only a single claim for the entire Corps but eventually time passed and criteria were relaxed to enable Sqn claims, from experience our Sqn has successfully claimed GASDS for bag packs in 2017-18 and intend to do so for the 18-19 period at the relevant time.

1 Like

The giver has to give consent via the gift aid form. Without a signed form you cannot claim as the giver has to confirm they are a qualifying UK tax payer. The giver also has to declare any payments to HMRC as part of their tax return.

Thinking about it, HQAC, Region or Wing can’t double claim because they would need their own forms from parents. The gift aid forms name the charity as the Squadron so this is something no other charity can use.

UPDATE… just looked further into this and you need to be careful. There are limits and I think you need to write to HMRC to be able to claim:

Not according to website where it says

You may be able to claim 25% on:
•cash donations of £20 or less
•contactless card donations of £20 or less collected on or after 6 April 2017

This is called the Gift Aid small donations scheme (GASDS). You don’t need a Gift Aid declaration to claim.

From 6 April 2016, you can claim up to £2,000 in a tax year or £1,250 for earlier years.

and this is the practice in our church.

I have been coaxing my wing squadrons towards claiming and recently did a presentation to my wing exec on the issue. The issue I had was that almost all squadrons are registered but last year only 4 claimed according to the F60s. Committees change, new people are untrained by the people leaving, the claims changed from paper based to online only. hence the funding source is missed.

So as others have said you do need a signed declaration from parents, these must be tax payers. You can also claim on bag packs undertaken since April 17 only, your pay in slip is copied and retained in case of HMRC audit. Any £50 notes CANNOT be claimed on, £20s are fine, You do not need any signed consents for this.

With say 40 cadets paying subs at £10 a month then your GA claim once you have got most parents signed up will be £500 or so a year, add to that your GASDS claim at 25% of your bag pack take, its a nice earlier BUT takes some time and patience setting up.

However once you are set up providing you have signed consents you can go back 4 tax years.

I dont get here that often but if anyone needs step by step help in how to set up GA for your squadron PM me with your e mail address. You can then populate that around your wing via your wing chair or wing secretary.

A

1 Like

Do you know why a £50 note cannot be claimed??

The maximum single donation allowed under GASDS is £20. So if you find a £50 in your bag pack pot ( that would be a first !), then you cant claim on it. If it was stuffed with 10s and 20s then no issues !!!.

A

What if you took the £50 note and broke it into tenners?
(not that I’d trust a fifty anyway)

1 Like

Thanks for the info.

When we do poppy collecting a local and very prominent business man gives the staff a £50 note for each cadet who went collecting (it all was handed to the poppy collection rep) as well as a box of his products to share out between the cadets.

I am sure you can read between the lines.

A

1 Like

Someone I think also mentioned the wing claiming GA of subs paid to it by squadrons.

This CANNOT be done, the 25% tax paid by the cadet parent has already been claimed by the squadron, you cant then claim another 25% on top. Squadrons need signed GA consent forms signed by the payer of the cadet subs, this says that they have paid tax on the money paid to a squadron. Its this money that squadrons claim. As squadrons themselves dont pay tax then there is nothing that can be claimed by anyone they send money to.

If thats not correct someone please correct me soonest.

Thanks

A

i suspect if this were to happen HMRC would take a very dim view.

‘However once you are set up providing you have signed consents you can go back 4 tax years’.

The problem there is that you might not get every penny, because cadet membership is never static, and it could prove a bit of a job catching up with everyone to obtain consent , but anything which swells the coffers and helps fund activities is welcome.

Another issue mentioned in ACP10 - Excepted status does not exist for any new charity formed after 31.1.2009; HQAC tells us that there is no longer an exception certificate issued, and to prove entitlement, it is a simple matter of waving ACP11 at the HMRC to prove that you are a charity and thereby claim Gift Aid.

The problem here is that the Law ceases to allow Excepted status after that date, which suggests that to exist as a new charity, registered status with the Charity Commission is the only valid option, otherwise the charity is operating illegally, which can also impact other fundraising.

The HMRC are very aware of this, so it would be interesting to know if any new squadron has yet successfully claimed gift aid without registration.I am sure the HMRC would not wish to support illegal claims.

Assuming there is RAFACHQ direction on this particular front…