Gift Aid is a scheme enabling registered charities to reclaim tax on a donation made by a UK taxpayer, effectively increasing the amount of the donation. This means that, if you pay UK tax and agree to BBC Children in Need claiming Gift Aid on your donation, the Government will give us 25p on top of every £1 you give to us and it doesn’t cost you a penny!

In order for BBC Children in Need to receive Gift Aid from the Government, we need to submit a Gift Aid claim to HMRC. This claim is made up of the details of every eligible donation made to BBC Children in Need alongside a valid Gift Aid Declaration from each individual donor.

A valid Gift Aid Declaration states the following:
• The donor is a UK taxpayer and have paid enough in UK income tax or capital gains tax in that tax year to cover the amount reclaimed by BBC Children in Need and any other organisation receiving Gift Aid claims from that donor in that tax year.
• The donor agrees to the Gift Aid being claimed by BBC Children in Need
• The donors name
• The donors home address
• The date the donation was made

In most cases we collect the Gift Aid Declaration as a part of the donation process, whether you make your donation online, via text, or by sponsoring someone. If you phone us to make a donation you can also make your declaration orally, but if you do we must write to you to confirm your declaration in writing.

If you made a donation to BBC Children in Need by phone and agreed to Gift Aid, we are required by HMRC to write to you to confirm this and give you the opportunity to cancel your Gift Aid Declaration. To make this process as simple as possible, we word our letter so that if you ignore it we will take this to mean you agree to the claim. This means that, in each tax year, as long as you have paid enough UK income or capital gains tax to cover the total value of Gift Aid we or any other charity will claim on your donations, you can happily ignore the letter.

You can of course get in touch to cancel the Gift Aid claim against your donation too. If you have not paid enough UK income or Capital Gains Tax to cover the value of the Gift Aid, it is important that you do. If any charity makes a claim following on from a Gift Aid Declaration you have made incorrectly it is you, the individual donor, who is liable to pay the difference to HMRC, not the charity.

BBC Children in Need can only claim Gift Aid if the individual handing over the donation is a UK tax payer and can confirm their Name, Address and that they have not received anything in return for the donation.

We cannot claim Gift Aid on:

• Donations from companies
• Donations from a combined collection unless all donors have agreed and signed a Gift Aid declaration
• Donation made through payroll giving
• Donations that are a payment for goods or services
• Donations using charity vouchers
• Donations that result in a benefit to the donor

To ensure the above is correct, you may also be asked to confirm that:

• The donation is your own money. It has not come from anyone else e.g. a business, friends, family or a collection
• The donation is not from the proceeds from the sale of goods or provision of service e.g. a cake sale, auction or car wash
• You are not receiving a benefit from this donation e.g. entry to an event, raffle or sweepstake.

Charities can only assume donors are basic rate tax payers and claim accordingly but higher rate taxpayers can claim income tax relief on the difference between basic and higher rate tax from HMRC via their self-assessment tax return.

Children in Need seek to inform higher rate tax payers of this benefit in the hope that the individual would re-donate this additional tax relief if claimed.

One-Off & Single Donations

I am happy for BBC Children in Need to claim Gift Aid on my donation.
I am a UK taxpayer and understand that if I pay less Income Tax and / or Capital Gains Tax in the current tax year than the amount of Gift Aid claimed on all my donations it is my responsibility to pay any difference to HMRC.

Sponsorship Forms

If I have ticked the box headed ‘Gift Aid? √’, I confirm that I am a UK Income or Capital Gains taxpayer. I have read this statement and want the charity or Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC) named above to reclaim tax on the donation detailed below, given on the date shown. I understand that if I pay less Income Tax or Capital Gains tax in the current tax year than the amount of Gift Aid claimed on all of my donations it is my responsibility to pay any difference to HMRC. I understand the charity will reclaim 25p of tax on every £1 that I have given.