ScotlandGift Aid is a great way to give to your favourite charity. Adding Gift Aid increases the value of donations by 25%, so it means even more money goes to the causes you care about – and it won't cost you a penny extra.
Gift Aid is a government scheme that allows charities to reclaim the tax that you have already paid on your donations through income tax or capital gains tax.
All donations (excluding those made through the Charities Aid Foundation) made in the last 4 years are eligible for the scheme – including regular gifts such as standing orders and direct debits.
The declaration gives Shelter the authority to reclaim tax from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) on your gift. By making the declaration, you are confirming that you understand this.
Completing a Gift Aid declaration doesn't put you under any obligation to give again; it just means we can reclaim tax on the donations that you've already made and any you may make in the future, so that your gifts go further at no extra cost to you.
You're a UK income tax payer if you:
pay income tax on your wage or pension before you receive them
have recently paid capital gains tax, for example on the sale of a property or some shares
If any of these apply to you, please complete and submit your Gift Aid declaration today.
If you’re a regular giver, you don't have to make a Gift Aid declaration with every gift .
Tick the box on the declaration once and it will cover gifts you have already made to Shelter Scotland in the last 4 tax years and gifts you make in the future.
Most regular and single personal donations are eligible for Gift Aid, for example direct debits, standing orders, cheques, cash and text giving
Donations that are not eligible include:
Charities Aid Foundation account or similar agency donations
payroll giving donations
company donations
trust donations
If you paid tax in a previous year but not this year (or vice versa), please call our Supporter Helpdesk on 0300 330 1234. We'll record details of this change.
Charities can only claim back tax at the basic rate – that is still worth 25% to Shelter Scotland, so please complete and return the declaration.
As a higher-rate taxpayer you have the right to reclaim tax on your charitable donations. To do this, include details of your charitable gifts on your self-assessment tax form to claim your additional personal tax relief (this being the difference between the basic rate of 20% and your higher rate). If you don’t submit self-assessment tax returns, you can also ask HMRC to adjust your tax code.
Contact us at info@shelter.org.uk if you require a receipt for donations by standing order or Direct Debit. If you donate goods to our stores, contact us at retailgiftaid@shelter.org.uk for an End of Year statement.
If you have donated in another way, please speak to the person who is handling your transaction at the point of donation.
You may still be paying tax if you are in receipt of a pension. For example, tax may be paid on:
private pensions
savings accounts (Income Tax)
profits from selling a property or shares (Capital Gains Tax).
Your gifts are still eligible for Gift Aid if you're not a taxpayer but your partner is and you donate jointly.
Shelter Scotland will need your personal details separately for our records. Contact our Supporter Helpdesk on 0300 330 0516. We will either confirm these details with you or send you a form to complete.
If you had a covenant in existence on 5 April 2000, you can continue to make the payments due under that deed of covenant until it expires, without having to complete a Gift Aid declaration.
However, due to the age of such covenants, we would advise you to re-confirm your agreement to the scheme by completing a new Gift Aid declaration.
If you make additional gifts or change the value of your gift under the original covenant, you must complete a new Gift Aid declaration to cover those gifts if you want us to be able to recover the tax on them.
Shelter Scotland cannot reclaim tax on donations made through the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) as the tax has already been reclaimed for you.
However, we would be grateful if you could complete and return the declaration form so that any donations that you have not made from your CAF account or might make directly to us can be tax-effective.
You can support as many UK charities as you like through Gift Aid. All you need to do is to return a declaration to each charity that you support and ensure that you are paying enough tax during the year to cover your total annual donations.
If you plan to raise money at an event, contact our events team on 0344 515 1190 or events@shelter.org.uk to let us know what event you're taking part in. We can provide you with support and materials including sponsorship forms, so sponsors can record their details to enable us to claim Gift Aid on their donations.
Original sponsorship forms must be sent in with your fundraising donations. We cannot accept copied or rewritten forms for Gift Aid.
If you're organising a collection for Shelter Scotland, each donor must complete a Gift Aid declaration for the collection to be eligible for Gift Aid. The easiest way to do this is to use our sponsorship form.
If this isn't possible, please contact our supporter help desk on 0300 330 1234 and they can send you individual forms to can hand out.
You cannot Gift Aid a collection of money from other people under your own name.
Find out more about In Memory giving, or email our In Memory team for support materials or any queries you may have.
You could decide that your gift should not be included in Gift Aid – for example, if you think that you will not pay enough tax to cover the tax reclaimed by us.
To stop Gift Aid for retail donations, please contact us at retailgiftaid@shelter.org.uk.
To stop Gift Aid for single or regular donations made directly to Shelter Scotland or donations made through other platforms such as GoFundMe or Facebook, please contact us at info@shelter.org.uk.
Shelter Scotland can reclaim 25% when the basic rate of tax is 20% because the basic rate of tax is calculated on the gross amount of the donation. This means we can reclaim 20% of the amount you earned before tax was deducted, which works out to be 25% of the amount that we receive.
To find out the exact amount of tax we can reclaim, multiply the amount of your donation by 20 and then divide it by 80.
In Scotland, if you pay the starter rate of tax at 19%, for Gift Aid purposes you'll still be treated as though you pay the basic rate at 20%. You can still Gift Aid as long as you’ve paid enough tax to cover the Gift Aid being reclaimed.
If you have any further questions about Gift Aid, please contact our supporter helpdesk on 0300 330 1234 or at info@shelter.org.uk.
