Gift Aid adds 25p to every £1 a UK taxpayer gives, at no cost to the donor. For most charities it is the single cheapest source of extra income, and the single most under-claimed, because the declarations are scattered across platforms, spreadsheets and paper. This guide explains what a Gift Aid declaration has to contain, how a claim is made through HMRC Charities Online, and how Tinwell captures the declarations on your WordPress donation form and exports a claim-ready file. It is written for the person at a small charity who has been handed Gift Aid and told to get on with it.
This is a practical guide, not tax advice. HMRC’s own guidance on claiming Gift Aid is the authority, and the rules can change. Check it before you make a claim.
What Gift Aid is
When a UK taxpayer makes a donation to a charity recognised by HMRC and signs a Gift Aid declaration, the charity can reclaim the basic rate tax the donor has already paid on that money. At the basic rate of 20%, a £10 gift is treated as £12.50 before tax, so the charity reclaims £2.50. The donor must have paid at least as much income tax or capital gains tax in the year as all the charities they support will reclaim; that is their responsibility, and the declaration says so. Higher-rate taxpayers can claim the difference between their rate and the basic rate on their own tax return.
What a declaration must contain
A Gift Aid declaration is the donor’s confirmation that they are a UK taxpayer and want the charity to claim. HMRC’s requirements are specific, and a declaration missing any of them is not valid:
- The donor’s full name.
- The donor’s home address, including at least the house name or number and the full postcode.
- The name of the charity.
- A statement that the donor wants Gift Aid to apply to the donation (and, if you choose, to past and future donations).
- A statement explaining that the donor must pay enough UK tax to cover the Gift Aid, and that it is their responsibility to pay any difference.
- The date.
A business address, a work email or a tick box on its own does not count. The address is the point that catches most online forms out: a form that asks for an email and a card but not a home address cannot produce a valid declaration, however many donors tick the box.
How Tinwell captures the declaration
Tinwell’s donation form includes a Gift Aid step with HMRC’s wording. When a donor ticks it, the form asks for the fields HMRC needs that it does not already have, so a declaration is never recorded without a home address and postcode. The declaration is stored against both the donor and the gift, with its date and the exact wording the donor agreed to, which is what HMRC asks to see if it audits a claim. The donor’s record shows their Gift Aid status, so the next time they give you know whether a declaration is already in place.
In the multi-step flow, Gift Aid has its own screen between the donor’s details and payment, so the ask is clear and separate from the card form. In the single-page flow it sits above the payment fields. Either way the donor can decline without affecting the donation.
To try the Gift Aid step yourself, open the live demo and give a test gift on the sample donation form.
Making the claim through HMRC Charities Online
Charities claim Gift Aid online through HMRC Charities Online, which needs a Government Gateway account and the charity’s HMRC reference. The claim itself is a schedule spreadsheet in HMRC’s prescribed layout, listing each donation with the donor’s title, name, house number, postcode, donation date and amount, aggregated small donations where allowed. You download HMRC’s template, fill it in, save it in the required format and attach it to a claim in the online service. HMRC pays the Gift Aid into the charity’s bank account, usually within a few weeks.
The part that takes the time is the spreadsheet. Tinwell produces it for you: in the Gift Aid area of the plugin, choose the period, and export a CSV of every eligible donation with a valid declaration, laid out in HMRC’s column order. Paste it into HMRC’s schedule template, save, attach, submit. Donations without a valid declaration are left out of the export and flagged so you can follow them up, and donations already claimed are marked so they are never claimed twice.
Keeping records
HMRC can ask to see the declarations behind a claim, and charities must keep a record of declarations for six years after the most recent donation they claimed Gift Aid on. Because Tinwell stores every declaration with its wording, date and the donor’s details, your records are in one place in your own database rather than in a platform account you might one day close. If you also use Beacon, Donorfy or Raisely, the declaration status is written to the donor’s CRM record as well.
Gift Aid on regular gifts
An enduring declaration covers future donations as well as the one being made, which is what you want for a monthly donor. Tinwell’s declaration covers future gifts, so a Direct Debit set up today with a declaration is eligible every month without asking again, and each collected payment appears in the export for the period it was collected. See the Direct Debit guide for how monthly giving works.
What does not qualify
Not every payment is a gift. Gift Aid cannot be claimed on payments for goods, tickets or raffle entries, on donations from companies, on money collected from others and passed on, or on gifts where the donor receives a benefit above HMRC’s limits. Tinwell’s form is a donation form, so most of what passes through it qualifies, but if you sell event tickets or merchandise elsewhere on your site, keep those on a separate form. When in doubt, HMRC’s guidance on benefits and on the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme (for cash and contactless gifts of £30 or less, which needs no declaration) is the place to check.
Why platforms claim for you, and why that is not always better
Some hosted platforms claim Gift Aid on your behalf. That is convenient, but it usually comes with a fee on the Gift Aid, it ties the declarations to the platform, and it means your charity’s claim history is split between what the platform claimed and what you claimed yourself. Tinwell keeps it simple: the declarations are yours, the export is free, and the claim goes through your own HMRC account alongside everything else you claim. For a charity that already claims on postal and standing-order gifts, that is one routine instead of two.
Getting started
Tinwell’s Gift Aid handling is included in the licence at £249 + VAT a year, with no per-declaration or per-claim fee. Switch it on in the plugin’s settings, enter your charity’s HMRC reference, and the form will start asking. The docs cover the set-up, and if you take the free onboarding add-on at checkout our team will configure it for you. For a plain-English walk through what a small charity can claim, read our guide to Gift Aid for small charities. See all the features or take the product tour.