Getting ready to claim Gift Aid
Your HMRC details, and the settings that decide your deadlines.
Who can do this: Administrators
Before your first claim, your church needs to be recognised by HMRC as a charity for tax purposes, and you need a Charities Online account to send claims. Our guide How to claim Gift Aid for your church explains both.
Step 1: Add your charity details
Go to Settings. Under Charity and Gift Aid, add your legal form, charity status, HMRC charities reference and financial year end. These decide how long you have to claim and how long records are kept.
Step 2: Check the Gift Aid settings
Go to Gift Aid, then Settings. The small donations allowance is normally £8,000 a year. If your church is connected to another charity with the same aims, such as a hall trust, you share one allowance: lower it here and note why.
Tick HMRC is currently looking into our Gift Aid claims if HMRC opens an enquiry. While it’s ticked, nothing to do with Gift Aid can be deleted.
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What happens next
The declaration wording on the same page is based on HMRC’s model wording. Every declaration records which version the giver agreed to.