Product requirements

Guidance Requirements

In Scope

Making a declaration

3.6.2 A Gift Aid declaration must:

• State the donor’s full name and home address
• Name the charity
• Identify the gift or gifts to which the declaration relates (for example, a particular donation or all donations)
• Confirm that the identified gift or gifts are to be treated as Gift Aid donations

In addition, in order for a Gift Aid declaration to be valid, the charity must give and be able to demonstrate it has given an adequate explanation to the donor of the personal tax implications associated with making a Gift Aid donation (read chapter 3.5) including the responsibility to pay any difference. This explanation can be included on a Gift Aid declaration but can also be made separately.

3.6.3 Gift Aid declarations can be given in writing (including by email, fax, or text message) or orally (in person or by telephone).

3.6.7 The declaration does not require a date but a date serves to identify the period covered by the Gift Aid declaration and where this is not otherwise clear from the terms of the declaration it’s necessary to include a request for a date.

Recording and audit of Gift Aid declarations

3.7.2 A charity must maintain a clear auditable record of declarations and of the making of those declarations, so that it’s able to demonstrate that a donor has in fact made an appropriate declaration.

Examples of what HMRC is likely to accept as evidence include:

• Written declaration made by the donor or a ticked box confirmation by the donor that they wish Gift Aid to apply to the donation
• An audio recording of the making of a declaration by the donor or an audio recording of the donor confirming a declaration where the declaration is pre-recorded by the charity
• A computer record of a declaration template filled in by the donor and containing a link to the donor's banking details
• An emailed copy of a declaration
• A computer ‘screen print’ of the declaration sent to the charity
• A scanned image that’s an exact replica of a declaration
• A copy of a mobile phone text message confirmation of a declaration
• Confirmation that a donor has been sent a written record confirming their oral declaration

Oral declarations

3.10.1 If a charity receives an oral declaration, and it does not keep an audible (and auditable) recording of the donor’s oral declaration, it must send the donor a written record of the declaration.

Invalid declarations

3.8.1 A charity may be able to validate an invalid (lacking sufficient evidence) declaration by sending a written statement to the donor — this includes a statement sent by email.

Out of scope

• Company donors
• Joint declarations
• Benefits in return for donations, including:
• Connected persons
• Partially eligible donations

System Requirements

3. As Staff

3.1 Capture Offline Declarations

• Provide a button to initiate a new declaration for a donor.
• Data entry form for email/phone/letter/paper form/face-to-face declarations, including date/time, method, and staff name.
• Provide additional fields specific to the declaration method to facilitate gathering appropriate evidence of the declaration.
• Record whether the tax liability was explained to the donor.
• Allow staff to create declarations with any start date and any end date, as long as the end date is later than the start date.

3.2 Written Confirmations

• Send the donor a written/electronic confirmation after oral declarations where no audible recording is available.
• Send the donor a written/electronic confirmation after oral declarations where tax responsibility was not fully explained.
• Allow staff to opt-in to sending a written confirmation when entering a declaration where they have doubts about the quality of audit information.
• Record that confirmation was sent and store appropriate evidence.
• If canceled within 30 days of a verbal confirmation, treat it as never valid.

3.3 Amend Declarations

• Allow editing declarations made within the last 30 days, including amending start and end dates, to correct data entry errors.
• Allow adding further evidence at any point, but preferably not removing evidence.
• Allow staff to enter explanatory notes when amending declarations.

3.4 Manage Existing Declarations

• Discover current Gift Aid status for a donor.
• View declarations for a donor.

3.5 Revoke Declaration

• Provide a button to revoke Gift Aid on any future donations for a donor.
• Allow specifying any date from 30 days in the past.
• Ensure that all existing declarations are revoked.

4. As Admin

4.1 Claiming Gift Aid

• Produce a report of all donors within a specified time period who had an active declaration for all or part of the period.
• Require the end date to be at least 30 days in the past, because various scenarios allow change/cancellation of recently entered declarations.
• Show the start and end dates of the period covered by declarations.
• Provide multiple rows for a single donor if they have multiple periods covered within the reporting period.
• Provide a donor ID to facilitate deduplicating these rows offline.

4.2 Audit

• Simple UI for looking up donor & declarations.
• Show audit trail for each declaration explaining changes.

4.3 Compliance Settings

• Periodic updates to Gift Aid wording if HMRC changes it.
• Specify monitored email address to send written confirmations from.

4.4 Retroactive Cancellations

• Sometimes donors will make requests that seem to require something like this, but it also runs afoul of the guidance principle to create new declarations rather than modify the scope of existing ones.
• Make far backdated cancellations.
• Delete declarations.
• Change donor for declaration.