You have made a donation to a registered charity and it’s now time to do your tax return and claim any available tax relief.
Claiming the tax relief against your income
Making a charitable donation that has been gift-aided will extend your basic rate tax band by the gross amount of the donation.
If you are a basic rate taxpayer (20%), unfortunately, this does not reduce your tax liability.
If you are a higher-rate taxpayer (40%), this will reduce your tax liability by 20%. As the basic rate tax band has been extended by the gross donation amount, more tax is due at 20% as opposed to 40%, therefore there is a reduction in tax of 20%.
If you are an additional rate taxpayer (45%), this will reduce your tax liability by 25%. This is the extension of the basic rate band plus the additional 5% for being additional rate.
However be careful, if you are not a taxpayer, you will have to pay back the tax reclaimed by the charity on your gift aid payments.
How to make the claim
If you normally complete a Self-assessment tax return, add the amount you are claiming in the ‘Charitable giving’ section of the form. This will then automatically feed into your tax calculation and reduce your tax bill. This can be found on page TR4 of SA100 (2023).
The entry should be in box 5 – Gift Aid payments made in the year to 5 April 2023.
If you do not complete a tax return you should contact HMRC with details of the gift and your tax relief amount. You’ll either get a refund, or your tax code will be changed so you pay less Income Tax for that tax year.
Keeping records
As with any claim for tax relief you need to keep a record of your donations. Cash donations are very rare these days so either an email, Just Giving receipt or a paper receipt should be issued to you by your chosen charity.
Need help?
Get in touch for a fixed fee quote and we will ensure that all your charity donations on your tax return are claimed accurately and in full.
If you have any further queries on this subject please reach out to us at 01902 711370 or email enquiries@uklandlordtax.co.uk if you have any questions or require our expert assistance.
