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 Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme (GASDS) also enables you to claim on small cash donations of up to £30 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.

IMPORTANT change

Wind down and closure of Diocesan Gift Aid processing

As parishes transition to PGS we will continue the wind down of the current Gift Aid processing. Final dates for claims to be received by the Gift Aid team are as follows:

Regular and one-off donations 15 May 2023 (for claims to 5 April 2023)
Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme (GASDS) 15 May 2023 (for claims to 5 April 2023)

All Gift Aid processing will close on 15 May 2023.

The enduring gift aid declarations that you already have in place for our current process are sufficient for HMRC, provided the church or parish name is clearly stated.

As the Gift Aid processing at Diocesan House is ending in 2023, please see below how to register with HMRC to claim directly.

Parish Giving Scheme

At the Diocesan Synod in November 2021 it was agreed that the Diocese of Canterbury would join the Parish Giving Scheme (PGS), which the majority of other Dioceses have already joined. PGS is an independent charity which operates within the legal framework of a Joint Venture Company co-owned by participating dioceses. The scheme operates a secure and effective service for managing Direct Debit donations from individuals to their churches.

We believe that the communication around the rollout of PGS will encourage those not already donating regularly through automatic bank payments to consider doing so. Also, we hope that PGS will encourage our regular givers to consider keeping the value of their donation the same - in real terms - by an uplift each year in line with inflation, while always having the option to opt out of that uplift.

The scheme should ease the administrative burden for Gift Aid Secretaries, Treasurers and also the Gift Aid Team in Diocesan House, as payments will be collected by PGS and the parishes will receive one monthly payment of all donations and regular payment gift aid received from HMRC. Along with the payments, PGS will provide easy access to a breakdown of the donations and gift aid received. The precious time we are all given back through using this scheme can then be focused on supporting our parishes on other matters we know require attention. The Diocese will pay a monthly contribution to the scheme, so there is no direct charge to the parishes.

Further information can be found on our Diocesan webpage Parish Giving Scheme, where you will be able to read the Guide for PCCs and the Guide for Givers. There is also the Parish Giving Scheme website, where you will find the history of the scheme About us - Parish Giving Scheme and case studies from other Dioceses that have joined PGS - Dioceses

Registering with HMRC

Claiming Gift Aid direct through HMRC can sound daunting, but be assured there are already parishes who claim Gift Aid direct from HMRC and they have said that they do not find this a particularly difficult task. We do believe that once you have registered and made your first claim you will find that it is not too complicated and it gives you more control over your cash flow.

Gift Aid is a scheme to support charities and HMRC’s focus is to provide this support. They understand that charities (especially PCCs) are often run by volunteers who may not have much formal accounting or administrative expertise. The HMRC Charities helpline: 0300 123 1073.

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.

Need more support? Get in touch

Our Finance Team are here to help with your queries. For all Gift Aid enquiries, please email us at giftaid@diocant.org or contact Vicky Alford and Louise Mills on 01227 459401.