What is the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme and how does it work for charities?

Full answer

The Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme (GASDS) is a top-up scheme that lets charities and community amateur sports clubs (CASCs) reclaim a Gift Aid-equivalent payment on small donations where it is impractical to get a written Gift Aid declaration -- think bucket collections, church plate offerings or loose contactless taps. Normal Gift Aid requires a donor declaration confirming they are a UK taxpayer, because the charity reclaims the basic-rate tax the donor already paid; GASDS instead pays a flat top-up funded by the government without needing that paperwork. How it works: for each GBP 1 of qualifying small donation, the charity receives a 25p top-up, mirroring the 25% uplift Gift Aid gives on basic-rate-taxed gifts. Only small cash or contactless donations below a per-donation limit count, and there is an annual cap on the total small donations a charity can claim on. To use the scheme a charity must generally also be claiming ordinary Gift Aid in the same tax year, and the amount it can claim under GASDS is linked to its genuine Gift Aid claims through a matching rule. Community buildings rules can increase the allowance for charities running activities in separate buildings, such as multiple church congregations. Who it affects: smaller charities and clubs that take a lot of anonymous cash or card-tap giving and cannot realistically chase declarations. Worked illustration of the rate: if a church collects GBP 4,000 in qualifying loose cash and contactless donations across the year and stays within the cap, it can claim a GBP 1,000 top-up (GBP 4,000 x 25%). The exact per-donation limit, annual cap and matching ratio are set by HMRC and are not listed in this guide -- check the current gov.uk GASDS figures before claiming. There is no calculator for charity claims here.