A Gift Aid claim brings together three sets of records: donations received, donor declarations and claims already submitted. Matching them helps staff spot missing evidence, unexplained amounts and gifts that have already been claimed.
Charities can reclaim 25p for each eligible £1 donated. These six checks take finance and fundraising staff through the preparation, from confirming access to retaining evidence for the submitted claim.
1. Confirm your access and define the claim period
Start with the charity’s HMRC recognition for tax purposes. This is separate from registration with a charity regulator.
For online claims, confirm that the responsible person can access Charities Online through the organisation’s HMRC account. HMRC’s online claiming guidance explains the prerequisites and submission options.
Set the donation dates and sources included in this claim. A clear cut-off helps prevent overlapping extracts, especially when several people gather records from fundraising platforms, direct debits and bank transfers.
2. Match donation records to the money received
Reconcile donations recorded in charity accounting software with fundraising records, using transaction references to connect each gift to its donor details and receipt information.
Distinguish the original donation from the bank settlement. In a hypothetical example, a donor gives £80 and the platform charges the charity a £2 processing fee, leaving £78 paid into its account. The reconciliation should show the gross donation, the fee and the net receipt.
Agree who investigates differences. For example, fundraising staff can resolve donor-record queries while finance checks amounts and settlement reports. Give each discrepancy an owner so it gets resolved before the claim is compiled.
3. Check that each payment qualifies
Review the nature of each payment before including it. Identify company donations, purchases and raffle-ticket payments separately from individual gifts, then assess their treatment.
Where a donor receives something in return, check the applicable donor-benefit rules. Admission payments, memberships and auction purchases deserve closer examination. Establish eligibility from the payment’s circumstances rather than relying solely on a Gift Aid tick box.
Look at the source of the money too. Someone paying funds into the charity’s account could be passing on a collection from other people. Confirm whose money the payment represents and check the supporting records accordingly.
4. Check declarations cover the donations
For standard Gift Aid, match each donation to a valid declaration covering that gift. Check the donor’s name and home address, the charity identified, the gifts covered and the required tax explanation.
Declarations can cover a single donation or a wider period. Compare the donation date with that coverage and check any cancellation or change the donor has notified.
The donor must pay enough UK Income Tax or Capital Gains Tax to cover the Gift Aid reclaimed on their donations across all charities and community amateur sports clubs for the relevant tax year.
Keep declarations accessible from the donation records they support.
5. Remove duplicates and check intermediary claims
Compare the proposed claim with previous submissions using donation references, dates and amounts. Check at transaction level: one donor may have made several legitimate gifts, so their name alone is an unreliable duplicate check.
For donations received through fundraising platforms or other intermediaries, establish who handles the Gift Aid claim. Arrangements vary. Review the agreement and transaction reports to identify gifts for which the intermediary has already claimed.
Check for duplicate imports as well. A fundraising export and a bank-transactions file can contain records of the same donation. Match those entries so the gift appears only once in the claim.
6. Review the submission and retain its evidence
Have a reviewer compare the claim totals, donor details, donation dates and outstanding queries with the supporting records. Follow the current instructions for the chosen submission route, checking any reused spreadsheet before uploading it.
Review deadlines before postponing older donations. Standard Gift Aid must be claimed within four years of the end of the financial period in which the donation was received. The Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme has its own deadline and eligibility rules, as the ATT guide to claiming Gift Aid explains.
Retain the submitted claim, acknowledgement, supporting records and review notes. Check the applicable retention requirements for declarations and donation records, including declarations that support gifts across multiple claims.
Leave unresolved donations on an exception list. Record who will investigate each item, what evidence is needed and when it will be reviewed.
