[GNC] Managing UK Gift-Aid

[Edward Bainton]

Yes, almost any donation to any charity (or community amateur sports club)
is eligible, and it would be unheard of for a church not to qualify as a
charity. (Perhaps not so unheard of for them not to register as such with
the tax authorities, as it's a lot of faff - as this thread makes clear.)

I'm not aware of any church that has a membership fee, and I'd be amazed to
learn of one. In the case of tithing (which is expected in only a very
small minority of churches) I imagine it would be cast as a donation, and
not as membership.

Our common law holds a membership fee to be contractual: it's
consideration given in return for some benefit, and this is why it can't be
a donation (and so is ineligible for Gift Aid). I wonder if possibly the
exception you mention arises on a similar basis: if the benefits received
are purely spiritual, possibly the law doesn't regard that as consideration
for the fee, so there is no contract at common law, and so the "fee" is,
after all, a donation.

Edward