You have a bank statement with a line that reads "J SMITH £40". You have a claim to build, and the donor's name is on the list. But there is no declaration on file for J Smith, and nobody on the committee remembers asking. The claim is either wrong or cannot be supported if HMRC asks about it.
This is the most common Gift Aid problem for a small organisation, and it rarely comes from dishonesty. It comes from a declaration that was meant to be signed, was never filed, and has gone missing with the person who collected it. This guide covers the three kinds of declaration you are likely to meet, what to write down for each gift, where records tend to end up, how long to keep them, and a checklist to run before you build a claim.
This is general information for volunteer treasurers, not tax advice. Check current HMRC guidance on Gift Aid declarations before you change how you collect them.
Three kinds of declaration you will meet
Most small organisations deal with three types of declaration. They look different on paper, and each one needs slightly different records.
Enduring declarations cover a donor's gifts over a period of years until they withdraw the declaration. A typical example is a regular giver to a church who fills in a form once and then puts cash in the plate or sets up a standing order. The form usually needs the donor's full name, their home address, a statement that they want the gift to be treated as Gift Aid, and the date they signed. Keep the signed original or a clear scan, and note the date you received it.
Single declarations cover one specific donation. A parent who pays £25 towards a Scout group appeal and ticks the box on the sponsorship form is making a single declaration. You need the same core details as an enduring declaration, but the record should say which gift it covers, with date and amount. If the donor later gives again, that second gift needs its own declaration unless an enduring one already covers it.
Verbal declarations are given over the phone or in person, and they are the easiest to lose. The organisation records what the donor said, the donor's name and address, the date, and the gift it covers. Write the record at the time, not from memory at the end of the month. Check the current HMRC wording for what a verbal declaration must contain before you rely on one.
In all three cases, the declaration is the donor's confirmation that they are a UK taxpayer and that they want the charity to reclaim the tax. Without it, the gift cannot go into a Gift Aid claim.
What to record for each gift
Whatever form the declaration takes, the record you keep should let someone who was not there trace a single line in the cash book back to a declaration. For each gift, write down:
- the donor's name, as they gave it
- their home address
- the date of the gift
- the amount
- the date the declaration was made, and whether it is enduring, single or verbal
- the wording or method used, such as a signed form, a scanned email, or a note of a phone call
- where the declaration itself is kept
The last point matters more than people expect. A declaration that exists but cannot be found is no better than one that was never signed.
A church plate collection shows the gap clearly. Cash in the plate is not automatically eligible for Gift Aid. Some of it may fall under the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme (GASDS), which has its own rules, caps and record requirements. Named regular givers who have signed enduring declarations are a different matter. Keep the two apart in your records, and check the HMRC rules for GASDS before you assume cash qualifies.
Where records end up, and where they go missing
In a church, declarations often sit in the vestry or in a box marked "Gift Aid" that nobody has opened since the last vicar left. In a Scout group, they tend to arrive as parent emails, photographs of a form on a phone, or a sheet that went home in a child's bag and came back folded. In a community amateur sports club (CASC), supporter donations may be recorded by a member of the committee who keeps them in their own inbox.
The pattern is the same across all three. The declaration reaches one person, that person keeps it somewhere personal, and the organisation's own records never mention it. When that person steps down or moves away, the trail stops.
Three habits prevent most of this:
- Choose one place. It can be a locked drawer and a labelled folder, or a shared drive with a fixed structure. What matters is that the treasurer knows where it is and the committee knows it exists.
- Copy it on receipt. When a signed form arrives, scan it or photograph it the same week and file the original. The copy is what you will use when someone asks.
- Link it to the gift. Note the declaration reference or date against the donor's line in the cash book, so the link survives even if the form itself is moved.
Keeping records for six years, and handing them on
HMRC expects Gift Aid records to be kept for at least six years. That period runs beyond your own term as treasurer. In practice, this means you are keeping records for a successor who may never have met the donors, and who will need to explain a claim made by someone else.
Think about the person who takes over from you. Will they know the declarations exist? Will they know where the folder is, and which donors are enduring and which are single? A handover note that says "declarations in the blue box, enduring ones first" saves a great deal of work later. Write the note while you still remember the arrangement.
If you use a spreadsheet, keep it with the rest of the books. If you use paper, keep it in one place and list what is in the box. Either way, do not let the records depend on a single email account.
Checklist before you build a claim
Run through these questions for each gift you plan to include:
- Can you name the declaration that covers this gift?
- Is the declaration signed or otherwise recorded in the way HMRC guidance requires?
- Does it include the donor's name and home address?
- Is the gift date and amount in the cash book the same as the date and amount on the declaration, or does the declaration cover it?
- Is the declaration still on file, and can you find it without asking a former committee member?
- If the gift is cash without a declaration, does it fall under GASDS rules, and have you checked the caps?
- Has the donor withdrawn the declaration, or has their address changed?
Any gift that fails a question should be held back until you can answer it. A claim with fewer gifts that you can support is better than a larger claim you cannot defend.
Where Vasker fits
Vasker's Plus plan holds Gift Aid declarations against each donor, so the declaration and the gift it covers sit in the same record. When you build a claim, the system checks the gifts against those declarations and flags any that are missing details. It then produces the claim file and keeps the request and response XML as evidence, so if a question comes up later you can see exactly what was sent and what came back.
That helps most with the tracing problem described above. The declaration is no longer in someone's inbox, and the successor does not have to rebuild the link from the bank statement.
A rough sense of what is at stake: a small club that has never claimed Gift Aid on eligible donations can be leaving several hundred pounds a year unclaimed. That figure is a planning illustration, not a promise for any particular organisation. If you want to see what your own donations might recover, the Gift Aid gap calculator is free, needs no account, and gives a rough estimate for planning. It is not a claim, and it does not replace checking your declarations against current HMRC guidance.
If you are not sure where your declarations are, start there before anything else. The gap calculator can wait until you know what you can actually support.