Are you claiming Gift Aid?



If you’re not then did you know that Gift Aid will boost your unit income by 25%?
For example, if you claim Gift Aid for a typical unit of 20 girls with weekly subs of £1.50 who meet for 36 weeks of the year, you will receive £302 per annum on top of your normal income.
Furthermore, if your parents also pay the Girlguiding annual subscription (census) of, say, £15 then you can claim on this too!  In our example this becomes a further £84 Gift Aid making a total of £386 for the year!

The icing on the cake is that Gift Aid can be back- claimed 6 years so there’s potentially around £2,500 waiting for you to claim!!

What’s more – it’s so EASY to set up and do!

If you are using the Girlguiding “Starting Rainbows, Brownies, Guides” leaflets it’s more than likely that you will already have all the records you need to make a claim.

Interested?

Then please read on for further information and claim what you are entitled to!

How to Claim Gift Aid

There is lots of information on the HM Revenue and Customs web site and the Girlguiding UK web site, but it can all be a little overwhelming.


Here’s what you need to know and do in 4 easy steps:

What you can claim.
You can claim your weekly subscription and the Girlguiding annual subscription “census”.
You can claim any donations that are made to the unit from a private individual who is a UK tax payer.
You CANNOT claim for money paid to you for trips, pack holiday, clothing, etc.

Step 1 – Registering with HMR&C
 
Start by downloading from the members’ area of the Girlguiding UK website the interactive HMRC
Charity Registration Certificate applicable to your unit (ie the Gift Aid certificate for England &
Wales, Northern Ireland or Scotland).
 
https://www.girlguiding.org.uk/pdf/GiftAidCertificateEW_Jan2011.pdf
 
Complete the HMRC Charity Registration Certificate  with the names, addresses, dates of birth and National Insurance numbers of the person making the Gift Aid application and two members of the unit leadership team.
 
Email the Charity Registration Certificate to the Information Team (at giftaid@girlguiding.org.uk) along with the address you would like your forms to be posted to and a contact phone number in the event of any queries.
 
The Information Team will print off the Charity Registration Certificate and arrange for it to be signed.  They  will also complete a Gift Aid Application Form for your unit and post you a printed copy of both of these completed forms.
 
On receipt of these forms you need to fill in the details of the unit bank account on the Gift Aid Application form and sign the form.
 
You then send the two completed forms form to HMRC with the following documents
·         a copy of a recent bank statement
·         a copy of your latest unit accounts (this is  the accounts summary of income vs expenditure that you prepare at the end of the year for the person who audits your accounts)..
 
If your application is successful, HMRC will send you a letter called a Cty 1. This letter will confirm
that your unit is registered as a charity for tax purposes and will state your unit’s HMRC reference
number. It will also provide guidance on how to download Form R68 in order to submit Gift Aid claims.
You will need to keep the Cty 1 letter safe as it is your evidence that your unit can claim the available tax exemptions.
 
Once you have registered you don’t ever need to do Step 1 again

Step 2 - Obtain Gift Aid declarations from parents

You can only claim Gift Aid on a parent’s donation if they are a UK tax payer.  The Starting Rainbows/Brownies/Guides/Senior Section leaflets contain a Gift Aid declaration.  Get your parents to sign to confirm they are tax payers.  These forms must then be held for the 6 years following the claim.  Once a parent has signed the declaration you can use it to claim monies given to you by the parent in the previous 6 years.

Step 3 – Recording monies paid to you by parents.

You need to keep records that show the amount of money paid by each parent.  There are lots of ways of doing this but the easiest way is to use your unit attendance register.  The register will show who attended each week.  If you enter the amount paid in subscriptions each week into the unit accounts and ensure that the amount paid tallies with the number of girls who attended, then your records will be adequate for Gift Aid purposes. 

Step 4 – Making the Gift Aid claim

You will need to download form R68 from the HMRC web site. 
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/charities/r68-claim.pdf
The form can be filled in and saved electronically.  You will need the HMRC reference number that was sent to you in Step 3  in order to complete the form.  Once completed you will need to print the form off to sign it and then you simply send it to the address shown on the form.
Girl Guiding have some great Guidance notes:  https://www.girlguiding.org.uk/pdf/1524_GiftAid.pdf
It really is that simple!