HMRC published revised guidance on Gift Aid declarations on 24 February 2012. This was to ensure that the donor pays enough tax to cover all their charitable donations and not just the donations made to the particular charity at the time. This has been the case but the mandatory information on the new model gift aid declaration form ensures that the donor is making an informed declaration and understands the consequences if they have not paid enough tax to cover the declarations e.g. donor pays income tax or capital gains tax in the relevant tax year at least equal to all the tax that charities etc will reclaim in that tax year on the donors charitable gifts.
Charities do not need to change their existing gift aid forms immediately and HMRC will continue to accept Gift Aid claims on donations made using old HMRC model declaration forms until 31 December 2012.
Full details of the new guidance on gift aid declarations can be found on the HMRC website.
The HMRC website also has details of the new model forms.
Please contact us for more details.