Guidance for Gift Aid on Personal Donations to the Poppy Appeal.

Guidance for Gift Aid on Personal Donations to the Poppy Appeal.

 

Gift aid is a useful source of extra income at no cost . The method required by HMRC ( the inland Revenue) is a little complex   Anyone who pays tax on earnings ,savings or investments may claim Gift Aid.

The taxman is not approached on an individual basis. No names or information is transferred.

The Legion makes a 'Bulk 'claim on the basis of the information given

Any personal donation by a taxpayer is eligible The donation can be in cash or as a personal cheque

Cheques should be made payable to

 

Ideally, cheques should be made payable to "The Poppy Appeal".  However, the following alternatives are acceptable:

The Royal British Legion :RBL : RBL Poppy Appeal  :   Earl Haig Fund

However, cheques that are more than six months old may not be accepted by the Bank and, embarrassing as it may be, a replacement cheque should be requested from the donor.

Gift Aid - Donations made via PAOs

 

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) will allow tax plus a transitional amount to be claimed on donations made to the Poppy Appeal from private individuals at the rate of 28p in the £1 (until April 2011) providing that a suitably worded declaration is received from the donor and we can show a proper financial audit trail between the donor and the charity.

HMRC require a clear audit trail between the donor, the PAO and Aylesford (who, of course, make the formal claim on HMRC).

 

The donor completes a Gift Aid declaration and that declaration must contain the donor's:

proper name (not nicknames)

full postal HOME address (Not their work, club or pub address) Postcode

the date and amount of the donation.

 

The declaration must be legible and complete.

The donor must also certify that they are a UK tax payer and the Income and/or Capital Gains tax they pay will be at least equal to the tax that the Poppy Appeal will reclaim on their gift.  There are Pads of Gift Aid forms obtainable from Aylesford

 

The sequence of events to claim the tax is now as follows:

 

Donor gives cash/cheque to collector with completed declaration.  Money may be placed in a standard collecting box, if appropriate. Collector gives declaration form to PAO with collecting box.

 

PAO checks to see that all declarations have been completed properly by the donors and then PAO completes new Gift Aid Schedule form listing all donors and their donations.  )

 

On a separate Lloyds TSB/Transcash/ABC slip PAO pays in value of Gift Aidable donations.  Gift Aid money must be paid in on a separate paying in slip which must be marked "Gift Aid Donations".  The value of the amount paid in MUST equal the total shown on the Gift Aid Schedule(s).

PAO sends Gift Aid Schedule, with Gift Aid declaration slips to Aylesford.  For donations made during Remembrancetide this should be completed by no later than 31 December 2010.  Paperwork received after this time may be carried forward and claimed in the following year's Appeal.

 

Aylesford make claim on HMRC.

 

On receipt of the cheque from HMRC the tax due to each PAO district will be calculated and credited to the appropriate PAO and receipt issued.  Due to the quantity received and the checks involved, it is very unlikely that this will show on your district before the June mailout or later..

 

The above process may seem severe and bureaucratic but is a mandatory requirement of HMRC.

Points to Note

 

Declarations that have been tampered with will not be accepted by HMRC.

Only declarations that are made payable to the Royal British Legion can be accepted.  Declarations made out to local churches cannot be accepted, nor can they be accepted if they have been altered in favour of RBL - see point (a) above).

 

Even if a donor has completed a declaration in the past because an audit trail must be established for every donation this means that a fresh declaration will have to be completed for every donation made to the Poppy Appeal via a PAO.

Donations made to the Poppy Appeal by Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) or Give as You Earn (GAYE) vouchers cannot be Gift Aided as the tax has already been claimed by the donors and added to their CAF/GAYE accounts.

Gift Aid and Sponsored Events

 

Donations made to the Poppy Appeal as part of a Sponsored Event such as a Parachute Drop, Marathon, Bungee Jump etc., should, broadly speaking, be treated in a similar way to the above.  Whilst it is likely that a Poppy Appeal Official Sponsorship Form will be used it is emphasized that any money collected must be banked separately from any other Poppy Appeal income and must equal the amount shown on the Sponsorship Form.  It is more likely that people completing sponsorship forms will use the address at which the money will be collected and that they will use nicknames and so on.  As per instructions above, regrettably these cannot be accepted for Gift Aid purposes.

Gift Aid and Church Collection

 

Quite often Parochial Church Councils agree to give the Remembrance Sunday collection to the Poppy Appeal.  It is possible to Gift Aid donations made by individual members of the congregation but it is essential that the proper administration is carried out.  A proper declaration showing all of the personal details mentioned above must still be provided together with a note that the donor is giving the money to the Royal British Legion and, of course, that they pay sufficient tax to make the declaration lawful.

 

It is suggested that this is best accomplished by using our own Poppy Appeal declarations and not the Church's own Gift Aid envelopes which may not have the appropriate wording on them.