Most small organisations do not have a Gift Aid problem so much as a filing problem. The declarations exist. They are just in three or four places: a paper form at the bottom of a shoebox, a tick box on a sign-up sheet, an email from a parent saying 'yes, claim it for me', and a spreadsheet column somebody started years ago and never finished. Until each of those is tied to a named donor and a donation, the relief stays unclaimed. The over half of registered charities that claim no Gift Aid at all are not all in that position, but many of them are.
This guide is about the declarations themselves: what they need to say, what sits behind them, and how to bring them together before the next claim or the next handover. It is general information for volunteer treasurers, not tax advice. Check current HMRC guidance for anything specific to your organisation.
The problem: declarations in four places
Take a church with a giving envelope scheme. The envelope has a Gift Aid box on the back. Some members filled it in and posted it. Others gave cash in the plate and said nothing. A few asked the treasurer to add them to the scheme by phone after Sunday service. The envelopes sit in a folder, the phone notes are in the treasurer's notebook, and the list of who gave what is in a separate spreadsheet that does not record whether a box was ticked.
Now take a Scout group running a parent appeal. Someone collected forms at the summer fete. A few parents emailed the group secretary. The treasurer has the bank transfers but not the forms, and the emails are in a personal inbox that the secretary is about to clear out. Each source is honest. None of them, on its own, ties a name to a donation.
What HMRC expects a declaration to contain
In plain terms, a Gift Aid declaration needs to show who the donor is and that they agree to Gift Aid being claimed on their donations. The usual elements are the charity's name, the donor's name, their home address, whether the declaration covers one donation or a series of donations, a statement that the donor pays UK income tax or capital gains tax at least equal to the tax the charity will reclaim, and the date.
The exact wording and the detail HMRC requires change from time to time, so check the current position on gov.uk by searching for Gift Aid for charities and the Gift Aid declaration guidance. Your regulator's guidance also applies: the Charity Commission for England and Wales, OSCR in Scotland, or CCNI in Northern Ireland.
Enduring, single and verbal declarations
These three types are the ones you will see in practice, and each leaves a different kind of record behind it.
An enduring declaration covers all donations from that donor until they cancel it or the charity is told otherwise. The record behind it is the signed or confirmed form, plus a note of the date and any changes of address. If a donor moves, the old declaration needs to be updated, not quietly replaced.
A single declaration covers one donation, often a one-off gift for an event or appeal. The record is the form or email linked to that specific donation in your cash book.
A verbal declaration is given on the phone or in person. It is valid only if you record it properly at the time: the donor's name, home address, the date, which donations it covers, and that the donor confirmed it. Keep that note with the rest of the donor's records. A phone call that exists only in your memory will not survive a question from HMRC.
A word on membership. Subscriptions do not always qualify for Gift Aid. If a donor receives a benefit in return for a membership fee, the amount that can be claimed may be reduced or nothing at all. Check the membership benefit rules in HMRC guidance before you treat a renewal as a donation.
A sorting exercise for one evening
You do not need to fix everything at once. Set aside one evening, a pot of tea and a blank spreadsheet with four columns: source, donor, what the declaration covers, and gap.
Start by listing every source you can find. Shoebox, sign-up sheets, the email folder, the old spreadsheet, the treasurer's notebook. Then go through each one and write down the donors it covers. Do not check the bank yet. You are only mapping what exists.
Next, mark the gaps. Typical gaps are: no home address, no date, no clear indication whether the form covers one gift or a series, a donor who may not be a UK taxpayer, and a membership fee where a benefit was given. Flag each one in the gap column. Do not start chasing donors on the first evening. A gap list is useful on its own, and you can work through it over a few weeks.
If you are not sure whether this is worth an evening, estimate your Gift Aid gap first. The free calculator at vasker.co.uk will give you a rough figure for what unclaimed donations might be worth. It is a planning estimate, not a claim, and it needs no account.
Keeping records for at least six years
HMRC expects Gift Aid records to be kept for at least six years. That applies to the declarations and to the donation records they support. A year-end pack that holds the declarations will also need to be readable by the next person, so think about where they live.
A shoebox is not a storage plan. Scan paper forms and keep the originals filed by year. Store the scans in a shared folder that at least two people can reach, rather than on one volunteer's personal phone. Name files predictably, by donor and year, so that a question six years later can be answered in minutes.
Because declarations hold personal data, keep access limited to the people who need it. The ICO publishes general guidance on UK GDPR for small organisations, and it is worth reading before you move a list of names and addresses into a new place.
How Vasker Plus holds declarations and builds a claim
Vasker Plus holds enduring, single and verbal declarations against each donor, so the donation and the declaration sit together rather than in separate files. When you build a claim, the tool pulls from those records and runs validation before anything is sent. You can see which donations are ready and which are missing something.
Vasker is recognised by HMRC for Charities Online Gift Aid claims. That is recognition, not approval or endorsement by HMRC. A Plus organisation sends claims to HMRC from Vasker. The treasurer or chair sends each claim with the organisation's own Government Gateway login. Vasker does not store Government Gateway passwords. The sender ID and password are typed at the point of submission and then discarded.
For evidence, Vasker keeps the request and response XML for each claim. If HMRC asks a question later, you have the exact record of what was sent and what came back. Plus costs £119 a year, and the Gift Aid tooling is included in that plan.
Handing the declaration records to the next treasurer
Declarations often go missing at handover because they were never really in the treasurer's hands. They were in an inbox, a notebook or a cupboard only the outgoing person knew about. Fix that before the role changes.
Write a short note that says where each source lives: the scanned folder, the paper archive, the spreadsheet, the claim history. Include the open gap list from your sorting evening, so the successor knows which donors still need attention. Share access through the proper route, not by writing passwords into the committee minutes.
If you use Vasker, the treasurer handover ZIP gathers the records into one pack for the next person. Whatever tool you use, the test is simple: could someone who did not do this job find every declaration within a week, and explain it at the AGM?
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