What is Gift Aid?
I’m sure most of you have seen or heard the term ‘Gift Aid’but how many of you actually know what it is? Do you know why is it so important to CLAPA?
Gift Aid is a UK tax incentive that increases the value of donations to charities, by allowing them to reclaim basic rate tax on your gift. That means that CLAPA can claim an additional 25p for every £1 donated by a UK tax payer.
Great- but how does it work?
The gift aid scheme is for donations made by those of us who pay tax. Charities take your kind donation (which is your money that you’ve already paid tax on) and reclaim the basic rate tax from the government.
In order for CLAPA to claim gift aid on donations we need your consent, we need to know that you are a UK tax payer. We have created a form for you to complete and send to us with your donation. We also need your full name and address. If you are doing a sponsored event and are collecting sponsorship money from friends and family, we can also claim gift aid on these donations. In order to do so, we need you to send us your completed sponsor forms with the names and addresses of your kind (UK tax-paying) sponsors. You can add gift aid to your online donations, for these gifts you do not need to send us a gift aid form, as the declaration is completed online.
Examples:
Sarah is a UK tax payer, she was in a generous mood one day last month and decided to make a donation to CLAPA. She sent a cheque for £10 to CLAPA, along with a completed gift aid form.
CLAPA were able to claim gift aid on Sarah’s donation, therefore receiving an additional £2.50 on top of her gift.
In total CLAPA received £12.50.
Chris did the London to Brighton cycle. 20 friends and family donated and he managed to raise a fantastic £400. Each of his sponsors completed the sponsor form with their name and address. Chris’ sponsor forms were returned to CLAPA.
Since each of Chris’ sponsors were UK tax payers CLAPA were able to claim an additional £100.
In total CLAPA received £500.
