Almost 15,000 more charities have registered to use Charities Online to claim gift aid since HMRC sent out reminder letters five weeks ago - but most charities have still not registered.

From next Monday (1 October) the old paper form will be redundant and charities will have to claim gift aid via the Charities Online portal. Those without access to the internet will have to claim using a new form – ChR1.

Letters were sent to 126,000 charities and community amateur sports clubs that have claimed gift aid in the last three years. Approximately 87,000 charities claim gift aid each year, according to HMRC.

HMRC today said that 33,492 charities had registered to use the system – up from the 19,000 that had signed up in August before HMRC sent out reminders.

Andrew Edwards, HMRC’s head of charities, said: “Using Charities Online to make a gift aid repayment claim is quicker and typically takes only three days, rather than the 26 days that it took using the R68(i) paper claim form.”

HMRC had already admitted to civilsociety.co.uk that a few large charities expected to miss the deadline and that it was making individual arrangements with some that had said they could not upgrade their IT systems in time.

As most charities make one gift aid claim per year HMRC expects charities to register for Charities Online when they need to.

Peter Mills, Charities Online programme manager HMRC, will be speaking at the Charity VAT and Tax Conference, part of the Charity Finance Summit, on 29 October 2013. Book here.