£200m in donations tax relief left unclaimed by high rate tax payers

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 27 Jan 2009

£200m worth of personal tax relief for high rate tax payers is going unclaimed, according to new research released by the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF).

Fifty per cent of higher rate tax payers are unaware that they are even eligible to reclaim 20 per cent personal tax relief on charitable donations and just one quarter of the 243 individuals surveyed by GfP NOP for CAF said they would be inclined to give to charity via their tax self assessment process. When the process was explained, however, more than half of the donors said that they would take advantage of the scheme.

Still, just 39 per cent of people who were aware of the availability of the relief had actually claimed it.

CAF marketing director Sheila Hooper suggested that research showed that the complexity of process of claiming tax relief was preventing the individuals from either claiming the relief for themselves, or claiming it in order to increase their donation to charity.

"The process may be impacting the number of people who reclaim their personal tax relief on charitable donations,” she said.

"But with over half saying that they would be likely to give this tax relief back to charity, charities across the UK are potentially missing out millions of pounds at a time when they are ever more stretched financially.

The research released this week is a part of a larger study into a broad range of donor perspectives of tax efficient giving due to come out of CAF in March. While any further action will be based on the outcome of the research, a CAF spokesman told Professional Fundraising that the organisation may consider launching a campaign on the back of its findings.

Directory: Charities Aid Foundation
Who's Who: Celina Ribeiro

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