Charity Tax Group is urging HMRC to provide more detailed advice for large charities about claiming gift aid online using their databases, to clear up areas of confusion.
Richard Bray, vice-chair of CTG and finance, regulatory and taxes manager at Cancer Research UK, told a seminar for large charities claiming gift aid via their databases, known as option 2, that: “Looking through the guidance you realise just how light it is for large charities."
He said that he would soon make a number of recommendations to HMRC to make the guidance more useful.
Bray also said that it was important that large charities were open with HMRC about issues they encounter when trying to file gift aid claims. He said: “HMRC need to know if we are working around an issue, otherwise they think it is hunky dory, and we are not going to get concessions if they can’t see that there will be a demonstrable benefit to us from those concessions.”
One of the issues causing concern is the need to have a home address for donors, as charities often have difficulty working out whether people have provided a home or a work address.
Bray said he had been advised by HMRC that in areas of doubt it is safe to assume it is a home address as long as on “all of our gift aid literature we are asking for home address” and not any address.
The old paper forms were withdrawn last autumn, six months after HMRC introduced two ways to file online and a new paper form for small charities without access to the internet. Most organisations that have filed gift aid claims using the new system have done so using option 1 – the spreadsheet version, with around 10 per cent filing via their databases.
50,000 charities signed up
This morning HMRC announced that 50,000, out of the 70,000 charities that claim gift aid, have registered with Charities Online, and that £380m in gift aid has been paid through the system since it was launched in April 2013.
Since October the only way to claim gift aid has been through Charities Online, with almost 35,000 signed up the system at that point. The last week in September was the system’s busiest week since launch with 30,000 visitors to the site.
HMRC says the new system has reduced the time taken to process payments from 29 days to nine.
