cdadmin posted on August 09, 2013 10:15
Charities and Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASCs) are now able to register to make repayment claims electronically from 22 April 2013.
The new service, called Charities Online will make repayment claims quicker and easier and will replace the previous manual repayment form.
The new system will have checks that will tell you if there are any mistakes on your claim before it is submitted, therefore reducing the amount of claims being returned to charities to be corrected.
The new process should make claims less time-consuming as all the donations for someone taking part in a sponsored event can be put on the form as one entry under the name of the participant, instead of listing each donor individually.
Now only single donations from a donor of £500 or more will need to be listed individually on the form however, you will still need to keep details of all donations in case HMRC decides to check your claim.
The rules have also changed for Gift Aid small donation repayment claims.
From April 2013, Charities and CASCs may qualify for top-up payment claims under the new Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme (GASDS).
The new changes mean that these organisations can claim a top-up payment on cash donations of £20 or less without the need to collect Gift Aid declarations, for example donations received in collection boxes, bucket collections and during religious services.
Charities and CASCs need to meet certain conditions so they can qualify for the scheme and there is a maximum claim limit of £5,000 for small donations per year, per claimant.
The top-up payment is calculated based on the basic rate of income tax. Therefore, currently, a small cash donation claim of £5,000 will entitle the charity or CASC to a top-up payment from HMRC of £1,250.
The simplification of the new Charities Online System should make the process of claiming top-up payments from HMRC much easier to understand, and the introduction of the small donations scheme should facilitate charities claiming top-up payments from HMRC on small donations where it is difficult to obtain a Gift Aid declaration from the donor.
Neither Christian Douglass LLP nor the contributors accept any liability for any direct or indirect loss arising from any reliance placed on articles.