[GNC] Managing UK Gift-Aid

[Chris Green]

On Thu, Oct 29, 2020 at 06:26:08AM -0400, Michael or Penny Novack wrote:
> On 10/29/2020 5:18 AM, Chris Green wrote:
> > I am treasurer for a small PCC in the UK.
> > 
> > I know there are other similar charity treasurer's hereabouts.
> > 
> > How do you handle Gift-Aid in your accounts, or do you not bother at
> > all and simply record the datail of Gift-Aid donations separately for
> > making the on-line claim?
> > 
> > It seems a pity to have to record things twice but on the other hand
> > the level of detail required for the claim to HMRC is much more than
> > one wants to have in the annual accounts.
> 
> Not in the UK. But this appears similar to here "grants" of the
> reimbursement type. But with an added twist. Not only having to track
> eligible expenses but also not all donations eligible,
> 
> The donations part easy. Just have two sub accounts under donations, one for
> eligible and one for not.
> 
It's not that easy!  

For us it's mostly collections in church that are affected (at least
they're the ones that I'm dealing with), each member of the
congregation who wants ( and can) get their donation gift aided `puts
their collection in an envelope and fills out the details (name,
address, signature, etc.) on the envelope.  Thus after the service
there are two piles, one "Gift-Aided" and the other not.  That's fine,
I can record two 'income' items.

The trouble is that HMRC needs a lot more detail, or at least it has
to be available, you need each donation with name, address, amount and
date.  These need to go onto an on-line "spreadsheet".

It *may* be that all I need to do is either keep (or scan) all the
envelopes and then, at the end of the year, feed all the data into the
HMRC "spreadsheet" form to make the claim.

I was just wondering how others do it.


> On the expense side, I need to know what else you need to submit
> besides a number << all the reimbursement grants I dealt with also
> required copies of receipts/invoices >>.  If JUST expenses (just
> numbers) then again a simple partition eligible for Gift-Aid/Not. 
> The extra work (entering twice) does not exist unless your board
> wants applying for reimbursement continuously.  Not going to be that
> much extra work if done say quarterly transferring "unclaimed" to
> "claimed".
> 
Nothing on the expense side is affected by Gift-Aid (or at least I
don't think it is!).

-- 
Chris Green