HM Revenue & Customs may toughen up the gift aid declaration rather than simplify it, delegates heard last week at a Charity Tax Group briefing on the Budget.

Richard Bray, regulatory and tax manager at Cancer Research UK, told the briefing, at law firm Trowers & Hamlin in London, that the government had consulted last year on a new gift aid declaration in an attempt to improve take-up of tax relief.

“The current wording of the gift aid declaration is sometimes a barrier to effective take-up,” he said. “As a result, government is consulting on a new wording.

“But HMRC is concerned. We learned from the National Audit Office report into gift aid that £55m is believed to have been claimed last year on donations from non-taxpayers.

“HMRC are thinking maybe there should be more words in the declaration, not less, to make doubly sure non-taxpayers don’t tick the gift aid box.”

In a consultation on gift aid and digital giving last year, government proposed a new gift aid declaration in an attempt to improve take, which is 52 words long instead of 111. However several charities have expressed concerns because the last line of that declaration is “I understand HMRC will check and may tell the charity if I have not paid enough tax”. Charities fear this will dissuade donors from giving.

Bray said CRUK had created its own version of the declaration which was shorter and had proven easier to understand among donors recruited for focus groups.

“Sometimes we think less complexity is the way forward, not more,” he said.