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Gift Aid Small Donation Scheme Explained

Posted by Redbourn Business Systems on Friday, July 17, 2015 Under: Gift Aid & GASDS

From the 6th of April 2013 onwards, Charities and Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC) have been able to claim top up payments on cash donations of £20 or less under the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme (GASDS).

You do not need to know the identity of the donors or collect Gift Aid declarations, which makes it easier to claim on donations such as street collections. You can claim 25% on cash donations of £20 or less and you can claim up to £1,250 in tax a year.

Who can Claim

To be able to claim under GASDS your charity must:

  • have existed for at least 2 complete tax years
  • have claimed Gift Aid in the same tax year as you want to claim a top-up payment (you can claim tax of Gift Aid and a top-up payment on small donations at the same time)
  • have made a Gift Aid claim in at least 2 of the last 4 years, but without a 2 year gap between claims
  • not have incurred a penalty on a Gift Aid or GASDS claim in this or the last tax year

You cannot claim on:

  • a donation that comes with a valid Gift Aid declaration
  • membership fees
  • a £20 portion of a larger gift

The maximum donation you can claim a top-up payment on is the lower amount of:

  • 10 times the amount of donations you've claimed Gift Aid on (e.g. If you receive £100 in Gift Aid donations, you can claim a top-up payment on £1,000 worth of small donations) up to a maximum or £5,000.
  • Small donations of up to £5,000.

Collections in community buildings

You can claim a top-up payment on small donations collected during charitable activities held in a community building, e.g. a church, cathedral, town hall, mosque, synagogue or village hall.

  • Charitable activities must be held in community buildings at least 6 times in a single tax year (6 April to 5 April) to qualify.
  • Charity activity held in a community build must have 10 or more people at the collection
  • Be open to members of the public
  • A fee cannot be charged to enter the building in which the activity takes place.

There is no limit on the number of eligible community building that a charity carries out its charitable activities in. If your charity has 2 community building it could claim on up to £15,000 in one tax year, made up of:

  • A maximum of £5,000 of small cash donations collected in each of the community buildings
  • A maximum of £5,000 of small cash donations collected elsewhere e.g. a street collection

Keeping Records

You need to record the:

  • Total cash donations collected, including each denomination of coins and notes
  • Date of the collection
  • Date it was paid into a bank account

For collections in community buildings you’ll also need to record:

  • The address of the community building (including postcode)
  • The type of event
  • An estimate of how many people were at the event

Keep records of small donations you’ve received for 6 years.


How to Claim

Claim GASDS in the same way as Gift Aid. 

The automated processing of GASDS income has been enabled in AdvantageNFP Fundraiser in release 1.21. 


In : Gift Aid & GASDS 


Tags: "gasds" "small donations scheme" "gift aid" "street collections" "community building" "small cash donations" 
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