Just over 3,000 people donated more than £50,000 to charity and claimed tax relief through self-assessment during 2010/11, HMRC has confirmed.

The information is contained in a response to a Freedom of Information request by Mr D E Young, submitted on 7 June. Mr Young wished to know how many individuals donated more than £50,000 to charity and claimed UK tax relief on those donations in each of the last seven years or longer.

The reply, from Theresa Chance at HMRC information policy and disclosure, listed the numbers of people in each of the seven years dating back to 2005/05. In that year, it was 1,850 people, and by the most recent year, 2010/11, this had grown to 3,100.

The charitable reliefs covered include gift aid and relief on gifts of shares and property, Chance said.

She added that payroll giving is not reported though self-assessment, so tax relief claimed for payroll giving is not included in the figures.

However, the value of tax relief attached to payroll giving has historically been much smaller than the value attached to gift aid so she expected that the majority of donors are likely to be covered by the released data.

The disclosure comes just weeks after HMRC admitted in response to another FoI request that a total of 340 high earners used gift aid last year to reduce their tax rate to less than 10 per cent.