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Gift Aid

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
I'm buying something off a chairty website and there's a gift aid option and it says this:
I wish the National Animal Welfare Trust to treat all donations I have made in the last six years, and any future donations I make, as Gift Aid donations. I pay income tax and/or capital gains tax at least equal to the tax amount the charity reclaims on my donations (currently 28p for each £1 given). If your name, address or tax circumstances change please let us know.

I'm assuming I can only check that box if I pay tax, so will tax still be taken off it as I don't pay tax?

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    if you dont pay tax, then dont tick gift aid.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    :( Oh well, I just don't think it's fair that tax can be taken off them.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Gift aid applies to donations, rather than purchases.

    What it means is that the charity get back the income tax you paid on the donation you make to them.

    So if I was a tax payer, and donated £10 to Save the Monsters, I they would get my £10 AND the £2.20 tax I paid for that £10 as income tax. What it means in reality is that I don't pay tax on my donation, but rather than giving the money back to me, they give it to the charity.

    If you don't pay tax in the first place, then there's none to claim back.

    There's a slight fix used by a lot of charities, whereby they 'give' you something in exchange for a 'donation' from you rather than a shop type purchase, which then means they can get gift aid from your 'purchase'
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    And even beyond that, if you tick the Gift Aid option when you don't pay income tax, then HMRC can and do come and ask you to repay the money they've paid out in gift aid.

    How gift aid works is that they get your income tax for your donation; if you haven't paid any tax then the money HMRC pay to the charity will be recovered from you.

    It's something charities don't mention and they really should. I had an operator for BBC Children in Need telling me the other year that I should say that I want gift aid, even though I told them I didn't pay tax...
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Kermit wrote: »
    It's something charities don't mention and they really should. I had an operator for BBC Children in Need telling me the other year that I should say that I want gift aid, even though I told them I didn't pay tax...

    I had something charity related recently that stated (in rather small print) that you have to pay the an equal amount in tax that is claimed as gift aid. I do think gift aid is a very good idea though.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    It's a fantastic thing, and that's why charities push it, but they are grossly irresponsible in the way they sell it. Yet again, the BBC last week were telling everyone to say yes to Gift Aid, without explaining once what it was and that you can only say yes if you pay income tax in the UK.

    Then again, it's not the charities who get hit with the bill from HMRC, it's the poor old lady or little kid who was talked into gift aid without being told what it was. For one-off donations it's not a problem, but if you pay a tenner a month it can end up being a rather large sum of money if it doesn't get picked up for a couple of years.
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