Gift Aid Secretaries

Gift Aid Secretaries help to make a big difference to church finances.

Gift Aid allows churches to reclaim the basic rate tax on donations - boosting any donations from UK tax payers by 25%

This means that a gift of £10 from a donor is worth £12.50 to your church. Gift Aid applies to large and small donations – cash, cheque, standing order or direct debit.

The new Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme (GASDS) also enables you to claim on small cash donations of up to £20 where it is difficult to obtain a Gift Aid declaration – meaning you can even claim on loose offerings and donations in non Gift Aid envelopes.

Gift Aid Secretaries are responsible for encouraging tax-effective giving, ensuring accurate records are kept and submitting regular claims to HMRC - therefore, it's important that they keep up to date with HMRC requirements.

Resources

Compliance Checks for Gift Aid Procedures

Gift Aid Secretaries are required to attend compliance checks for gift aid procedures at least once every three years. These are held around the diocese throughout the year.

Prior to 2018 the Diocesan Accounts team visited every parish to carry out compliance checks for gift aid procedures. However, from 2018 onwards we are carrying out these checks in locations around the diocese to enable more than one Gift Aid Secretary to attend at one time. There are 30 events around the diocese running over a 12 month period and are on a variety of days and times.

A week or so before your event, we will contact you and specify which recent claim of yours we want to look at. You will then need to bring the paperwork relating to that claim. If you have essential data stored electronically that is impractical to print then please email a copy to us. Examples of the paperwork we need are:

Bank statements
Weekly counting sheets
Spreadsheets
Freewill offering envelopes
Any other documents used in preparing the specified claim

The plan for each event is to do the necessary specific checks and to share best practices. How exactly this will work out will depend on the number attending and will develop over time.

Dates, venues and times for upcoming events will be posted to this page as soon as they become available.