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Changes to the Gift Aid Small Donation Scheme

Carolyn Rossiter

Changes to the Gift Aid Small Donation Scheme (GASDS) legislated in the Small Charitable Donations and Childcare Payments Bill came into effect on 6 April 2017 making it simpler and easier to claim. 

The main changes are:
  • The removal of the requirement that a charity must have been in existence for at least two previous full tax years.  This means that a charity is able to claim GASDS from the date it is established, rather than waiting for two years.
  • The removal of the 'two in four year' rule so that the charity no longer needs to have made a successful claim to Gift Aid in two of the previous four tax years.
  • The scheme has been extended to include donations made by contactless payments.
  • A charity or group of connected charities can now claim either: a) a total of up to £8,000 of small donations made anywhere in the UK; or b) the total of the various community buildings entitlements - i.e. up to £8,000 of small donations made in the local authority area in which each community building is located.
  • The community building rule has been relaxed.  Previously donations had to be collected inside the building during charitable activities to qualify under the community building allowance.
Under the new rules charities are able to claim on donations collected outside the community building but within the local authority areas in which the building is situated - up to £8,000 per community building as long as they satisfy the community building critera. In practice, this means that charities with a community building can claim on donations collected during events in the local town.  

For further advice on the Gift Aid Small Donation Scheme please contact Carolyn Rossiter.