Gift Aid

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Gift Aid is a UK tax incentive that enables tax-effective giving by individuals to charities in the United Kingdom. Gift Aid was introduced in the Finance Act 1990 for donations given after 1 October 1990, but was originally limited to cash gifts of £600 or more. This threshold was successively reduced in April 2000 when the policy was substantially revised and the minimum donation limit removed entirely. A similar policy applies to charitable donations by companies that are subject to the UK corporation tax.

Gift Aid was originally intended for cash donations only. However, since 2006, HMRC compliant systems have been introduced to allow tax on the income earned by charity shops, acting as an agent for a donor, to be reclaimed. In order for the charity to operate effectively they will need HMRC-approved systems to be able to record and track the progress of each item from receipt to sale and confirm with the donor that the donation should still go ahead.^[1] In the financial year 2021/22, Gift Aid to charities amounted to £1.3bn, a fall of 3% from the previous year largely attributed to HMRC putting on hold more claims than usual in March 2022 for extra risk assessment.^[2]

The Finance Act 2010 extended Gift Aid to charities within EU member states, Norway and Iceland, rather than those just inside the UK.^[3] Gift Aid was extended to include Liechtenstein in 2014.