HMRC has routinely been refusing to pay Gift Aid if somebody says their donation is from more than one person….
HMRC has routinely been refusing to pay Gift Aid if somebody says their donation is from more than one person e.g. from Mum and Dad. This is something definitely to watch out for and is losing charities thousands in extra revenue. HM Revenue & Customs is carrying out spot-checks on forms and is rejecting the Gift Aid requests based on personal messages that are commonly included with a charitable donation. The tax boost could be snatched away from thousands of donors.
JustGiving has just recently managed to come to an agreement with HMRC, that will hopefully see thousands of charities regain their Gift Aid revenue that had previously been rejected because multiple names had been listed on the support message. A temporary lift has been agreed and up to four names of linked family members will be accepted.
It is uncertain whether this is now a general rule or whether it has been implemented only for Just Giving as when we asked HMRC they said that they would not comment on individual cases, so it is probably worth while checking to see if it holds for your charity.
In a comment made on the Just Giving Blog it states – “We expect the processing of these retrospective payments to be challenging, and the JustGiving team is working hard to find the best way to get the right money to charities effectively. We will most likely have to phase the payments over a number of weeks, but please be reassured that we will be working to ensure that every charity affected gets the correct funds as quickly as possible. These transactions will be accompanied by appropriate reporting.”.