HMRC have recently released their UK Charity Tax Relief Statistics Commentary for the year ended 30 April 2022. In the year to a total of £5.4billion in tax reliefs were claimed by charities and their donors, less than a 1% decrease compared with the prior year.
- Gift Aid paid directly to charities amounted to £1.3billion; whilst this is 3% less than in the previous year, it is understood that HMRC have put more March claims than usual on hold for extra risk assessment.
- Business rates reliefs were down less than 1% to just under £2.4 billion.
- Relief for higher rates of tax on Gift Aid donations, paid to individuals, is forecast to be steady at £0.5 billion.
- Inheritance Tax reliefs for donations totalled £0.8 billion, down 4%.
The data shows that despite the impact of the global pandemic there is still the ability for charities and donors alike to benefit from making donations to not-for-profit organisations.
However, such tax reliefs will only continue to become more and more important with the rising pressures resulting from increased inflation, the cost of living crisis and other factors impacting the availability of funds for charities. With such pressures, there is welcome news that JustGiving and Streeva are working together to help maximise Gift Aid claims through their development of the Swiftaid solution.
Swiftaid is a new Gift Aid network and automation service that has been developed to reduce the amount of Gift Aid that goes unclaimed every year. It removes the need for donors to complete a Gift Aid form every time they donate. Instead, donors simply need to make one Gift Aid declaration per tax year, which is then shared across the Swiftaid partner network. Integrated into the JustGiving donation flow, Swiftaid enables people to register and add Gift Aid to that donation. Once registered on Swiftaid, Gift Aid is automatically applied in that tax year to any eligible donations that donor makes via JustGiving (or via other organisations registered on the Swiftaid network).
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