Start with the rejected or queried claim a treasurer fears
The email from Charities Online arrives on a Tuesday evening, when you are halfway through the cash book. A claim has been rejected, or queried, and the message is short. You are not sure what to do next, and the person who built the last claim has moved on.
Most treasurers who have been through this say the same thing. The problem was not the software or the HMRC system. It was a row in the spreadsheet that did not match the paper declaration behind it. A name spelt differently, a date that was never filled in, a sponsored walk logged with the wrong total. Small errors like these are easy to make and hard to spot once a claim has been built from a long list of gifts.
This article covers the checks worth running before a claim leaves your hands. It is written for the volunteer who keeps the books for a sports club, PTA, Scout group, CASC, church or small registered charity. It is general information, not tax advice, and you should check current HMRC guidance for anything that affects your claim.
Checks on donor name, address, date and amount against the declaration
A Gift Aid claim rests on the declaration each donor has signed. Every eligible gift should trace back to one. Before you build a claim, check these basics against the paper or digital declaration, not against your memory of it.
- Donor full name. Does it match the declaration, including middle names or initials where the donor used them? A nickname in the cash book is a common cause of query.
- Donor address and postcode. Does the address on the declaration match the one you have recorded? If a donor has moved, the declaration is the record that counts for that gift, so note the change rather than overwriting it.
- Declaration date. Is it present, and is it before the gift it covers? A declaration dated after the donation does not support that donation. Check how your declarations cover past years too.
- Declaration type. Is it an enduring declaration covering future gifts, a single declaration for one gift, or a verbal declaration you have recorded in writing? Each has its own rules, so label them in your records.
- Amount. Does the gift in the cash book match the amount the donor actually gave? Watch for gifts split across two bank lines, or refunds that were netted off.
- Donor is still eligible. Gift Aid depends on the donor paying UK income tax or capital gains tax equal to the tax reclaimed. Donors who are not taxpayers can still give, but their gifts are not eligible for Gift Aid. Check HMRC guidance on this rather than relying on a rule of thumb.
- Membership fees. Do not assume a subscription qualifies. Whether a membership payment is a donation depends on the benefits the member receives. Check the membership-benefit rules before you include any fee in a claim.
If you have a gift you cannot trace back to a valid declaration, leave it out of the claim. Record it as a donation in the cash book so the committee still sees the income.
Aggregated and sponsored-event rows: what a validation step should flag
Some gifts do not come with an individual declaration in the usual way. These are the rows that cause the most problems.
- Sponsored events. A sponsored walk, swim or bake sale often produces many small gifts from people who each signed a sponsor form. The sponsor form needs the donor's details and, where Gift Aid is claimed, a declaration. Check that the total on the claim matches the sum of the sponsor forms you hold, not the figure the organiser remembers.
- Aggregated donations. HMRC allows some small gifts to be claimed in aggregate, for example money collected in a tin, but there are conditions on how these are recorded and how much can be claimed. Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme (GASDS) works differently again. It is a top-up on qualifying small cash donations without individual declarations, but it is subject to HMRC rules and caps and does not replace declarations for named regular gifts. Do not assume every collecting-tin pound qualifies.
A validation step in claim software should flag these rows for you to look at. It should stop you putting a sponsored total against a missing sponsor form, or an aggregated amount that breaks a rule, before the claim is sent. A flag is not a guarantee that HMRC will accept the claim. It is a prompt to check the record yourself.
Why request and response records matter if HMRC asks later
Sometimes a claim is accepted and HMRC asks questions months later, often after an independent examination or a change of treasurer. At that point, the question is not what you meant to send. It is what you actually sent, and what HMRC sent back.
- Keep the request and response. Keep a copy of the claim file you submitted and the response HMRC returned. These are the evidence if a figure is questioned. Vasker's Plus plan keeps request and response XML for this purpose, but the habit matters whichever tool you use. Store them somewhere the next treasurer can find them.
HMRC expects Gift Aid records to be kept for at least six years. That means the declarations, the cash book lines that support each gift, and the claim records. A handover pack is only useful if it includes them.
About Vasker and HMRC
Vasker is bookkeeping and Gift Aid software for unpaid UK treasurers. It keeps the cash book, members and claims in one place, and produces a handover pack when the next volunteer takes over.
Vasker is listed by HMRC as commercial software for filing Gift Aid and charity repayment claims online through Charities Online. HMRC does not endorse or approve any software supplier.
On the Plus plan, the treasurer or chair sends each claim to HMRC with the organisation's own Government Gateway login. Vasker does not store Government Gateway passwords. The sender ID and password are typed only at claim submission and then discarded.
If you are not yet sure how much might be sitting unclaimed, the Gift Aid gap calculator gives a rough estimate. It is free, needs no account, and is for planning rather than claiming. For reference, £2,000 of eligible donations from UK taxpayers with valid declarations comes to £500 of Gift Aid at 25p in the pound. That is arithmetic, not a promised result for any organisation.
General information, not tax advice; check current HMRC guidance
This article is general information for UK volunteer treasurers. It is not legal, tax or accounting advice. Gift Aid, GASDS, declaration and membership-benefit rules change, so check current HMRC Charities Online and Gift Aid guidance before you build a claim. Charity Commission, OSCR or CCNI guidance for your organisation may also apply.
Running these checks does not guarantee that a claim will be accepted. It makes it less likely that a preventable error goes to HMRC, and it leaves a clear trail if a question comes later.