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Take-up of Gift Aid tax relief

HM Treasury consulted charities on measures to increase charitable giving through Gift Aid.

The consultation was launched on 19 June 2007 at a roundtable discussion involving Stephen Timms, the then Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Ed Miliband, the then Minister for the Third Sector, and representatives from the charitable sector.

At present, take-up of Gift Aid stands at around a third of donations, giving support to charities worth £828 million a year, but the Charities Aid Foundation estimates that £700 million more could be claimed through Gift Aid by charities with more tax-effective giving.

The Government want to make Gift Aid easier, simpler and open to more donors, and hopes that the consultation will lead to practical changes to improve the system and benefit charities.

The Government was interested in hearing views from across the country and from a wide range of charities. Alongside the consultation, the Government was also campaigning to increase public awareness of Gift Aid.

Questions in consultation

Questions in the consultation included:

• How can Government work with charities to increase their overall awareness and understanding of Gift Aid?
• Do you think that Gift Aid encourages your donors to give more?
• What proportion of your donors giving larger sums of money donates using Gift Aid?
• If you are a charity that is eligible to claim Gift Aid on rights of admission, do you operate such a scheme?
• Do you operate Gift Aid replayment claims?
• What has your experience been of the Gift Aid audit process and what challenges have you faced?

Consultation document

• Consultation on Gift Aid (full document) [PDF, external website]

Further details

More details of the consultation are available from the Treasury's Charity and Third Sector Finance Unit [External website].

Deadline

The consultation closed on 30 September 2007.