Fundraising and gift aid

The law on tax relief on giving is highly complex and the penalties for non-compliance harsh. On the other hand, gift aid and other tax reliefs are worth a significant amount to charities. Maximising tax reliefs can help your fundraising be more successful.

Sayer Vincent are charity specialists with extensive experience of working with both finance and fundraising teams. We can help you get the most from your schemes. Areas where we can help:

Gift aid internal audit – we can review your policies and procedures on gift aid, check documents and websites for information provided to donors and then test your records to see how you would fare in an inspection visit from HMRC. We can then recommend improvements to ensure that you would pass with flying colours.
Handling HMRC inspections – If you have already had a visit from HMRC, you may be facing an assessment for the repayment of gift aid. We can help you to agree the appropriate amount to repay as sometimes HMRC overassess the amount due and then to improve your processes.
Training – we can run training sessions for your finance and fundraising teams to improve their knowledge of the rules and advise on practical issues, such as turning cash donations into gift aid donations and handling donations at events. We can also train staff on the preparation of the gift aid claim.
Charity shops – you may wish to introduce gift aid into your charity shops and need help with processes, accounting, VAT and training.
New fundraising initiatives – if you are setting up new fundraising schemes, we can advise on the best ways to maximise the gift aid or other tax reliefs and ensure VAT is treated correctly.
Companies and gift aid – donations and sponsorship from companies have different rules; we can help with guidance for the company. Companies may also wish to donate goods or services or organise fundraising events for your charity.
Major donors – there are other ways of tax effective giving such as donating shares or property, plus there are some specific anti-avoidance rules for significant donations which may deter donors if not handled carefully.

We always provide an estimate of fees before we start working with you and will keep you informed of the costs involved. For protracted negotiations with HMRC, we will ensure that you have key decision points so you can consider whether to continue or whether to accept the ruling.

Training

We run training courses on all aspects of VAT and taxation for finance and fundraising teams. We can incorporate aspects of gift aid and cover the interaction between VAT and gift for fundraising.

‘I asked Kate at Sayer Vincent to hold an interactive workshop at CLIC Sargent covering VAT, Gift Aid and Collections for fundraisers, specifics covered included; gift aid basics, fundraising and challenge events, collections and corporate support. The workshop was extremely well received, hit the mark, was interactive and received great feedback. Given the nature of the topics, which can be a little ‘dry’ we were delighted with the outcomes and feel much more confident to move forward in what can be a complex area of fundraising.’

Clare Gallie, Head of UK Fundraising at CLIC Sargent.