Setting up Gift Aid

Gift Aid is a program of HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) that enables not-for-profit organisations to claim back the basic rate tax paid by donors. In effect, electing to donate with a Gift Aid declaration increases your gift to the organisation at no additional cost to you.

Gift Aid is for monetary donations by individuals who pay UK tax. Charities in the UK, EU, Norway, and Iceland may be eligible for Gift Aid. Charities take the donation (on which you've already paid tax), and reclaim the basic rate tax on its gross equivalent (the amount before basic rate tax was deducted).

Gift Aid is calculated by the following equation:

(donation / (100 - basic rate of tax)* 100) - donation

The following examples show the full potential of a donor's gift. Donors at higher rates of tax have a higher potential gift if they elect to donate their additional reclaimed tax.

Note: The tax rates below are for illustrative purposes only. Contact HMRC for the most up-to-date tax rates and to determine the rate of your taxes.

  Donation Charity Claims Total Donation Donor Reclaims Full Potential
Basic rate taxpayer (20%) £100 £25 £125 — £125
Higher rate taxpayer (40%) £100 £25 £125 £25 £150
Higher rate taxpayer (45%) £100 £25 £125 £31.25 £156.25

To set up Gift Aid in iMIS, you must do the following:

  • Edit your sitemap to display the Gift Aid navigation items.
  • Configure the Gift Aid pages.
  1. In the Staff site, go to RiSE > Site Builder > Manage sitemaps.
  2. From the drop-down menu above the sitemap tree, select Staff.
  3. Reveal the Gift Aid declarations navigation item.
    1. In the sitemap tree, select Fundraising > Gift Aid.
    2. (Options tab) Clear the This navigation item is hidden checkbox.
    3. Click Save.
    4. Publish the sitemap.

To display the Gift Aid declarations for a specific contact, you must add the Gift Aid Declarations content item to the Staff account page. You will be able to review existing declarations or create new declarations for a contact.

Do the following to add a Gift Aid Declarations content item to the Staff account page:

  1. In the Staff site, go to RiSE > Page Builder > Manage content.
  2. Go to @/iCore/Contacts/ContactLayouts/Staff/Tabs. Select all of the content records in that folder, and select Organize > Copy. Content records in the Core folder cannot be modified and saved. For more information, see Customizing account pages.
  3. Go to @/Shared_Content/Staff/Tabs and select Organize > Paste. This moves all of your Staff account page tabs to a shared folder so that you can modify and save the content.
  4. Copy the Gift Aid Declarations content record in the @/iCore/Fundraising/Gift_aid_declaration folder to the @/Shared_Content/Staff/Tabs folder and configure the Gift Aid Declaration content item:
    • Default behaviour for Effective From date - Select Apply the 4-year rule.
    • Default GAD duration (in years) - Enter 4.
    • Default declaration method - Select Written.
  5. You also must configure the Gift Aid tax reclaim content item:
    1. In the Staff site, go to RiSE > Page Builder > Manage content.
    2. Go to @/iCore/Fundraising/Gift Aid tax reclaim.
    3. Configure the Gift Aid tax reclaim content item:
      • HMRC Reference - Enter a value. This field cannot be blank.
      • Initially include all Appeal Types, Cash Accounts, Categories, and Customer Types. You can modify these selections later if necessary.
      • Leave other values at their defaults.
    4. Save the content item to a Shared folder, then point the Reclaim taxes navigation item to the new content item (probably found at ~/Fundraising/Gift_Aid/Gift_aid_reclaim).
  6. Click Save & Publish.

The Gift Aid Utility reads in a CSV file of donations, and prepares and submits a tax reclaim based on these donations.

Do the following to install and configure the Gift Aid Utility:

  1. Run GAUSetup.msi to install the Gift Aid Utility.

    2. Note: Contact ASI Technical Support to receive the GAUSetup.msi file.

  2. Open the GiftAidUtility.exe.config file. This file can be found in the location where you installed the Gift Aid Utility. Add the following:
    3. <appSettings>
     <add key="ImisWebServerUrl" value="http://address/Imis"/>
     <add key="DataSource.iMIS.Connection" value="Data Source=servername;User ID=user;
	Password=password;Initial Catalog=database"/>
     <add key="LocalTest" value="No"/>
    </appSettings>

Do the following to open and configure the Gift Aid Utility:

  1. Double-click GiftAidUtility.exe to the start the utility.
  2. Sign on with a valid Staff user name and password.
  3. (Configuration tab) Check you have the following entries for testing:
    • Sender Id is 323412300001
    • Sender Password is testing1

Do the following to submit a Gift Aid claim through the Gift Aid Utility:

  1. Run a Gift Aid tax reclaim. See Generating Gift Aid tax reclaim data for more information.
  2. Run the GiftAidClaim - Export query (located in $/Fundraising/DefaultSystem/Queries/GiftAid/GiftAidClaim - Export).
    1. Enter the Tax Reclaim Reference number.
    2. Save the query results as a CSV file.
  3. Open the Gift Aid Utility.
  4. Sign on using a valid Staff user logon
  5. Browse to the CSV file you created.
  6. Enter the Claim Reference number and press Read In.

Use iMIS Gift Aid to manage the following tasks:

  • Recording a contact's Gift Aid declaration, so that you can reclaim tax on their donations.
  • Generating Gift Aid tax reclaim data so that you can track the eligible Gift Aid donations your organisation has received. You can also mark these as claimed, so that those transactions do not show up in future iMIS-generated reclaims.
  • Creating a printable report that you can use to reclaim tax from the HMRC. Visit the HMRC for more information about how to reclaim tax on Gift Aid.

If a donor is a UK taxpayer, they can make a Gift Aid declaration to your organization, so that you can reclaim the tax paid on their donation. Donors can make Gift Aid declarations online, by filling out a form, or by phone, but you must confirm the declaration in writing. The declarations you enter into iMIS are matched against the donations you receive when you generate Gift Aid tax reclaims. You can only reclaim the tax if a donor has a valid Gift Aid declaration.

A donor’s declaration only has to be completed once for your charity and can be valid for as long as the donor remains a taxpayer. It is the donor’s responsibility to inform you when they are no longer eligible for Gift Aid. In theory, all declarations could be open-ended. However, many organisations prefer to contact donors periodically to check that they are still taxpayers, and thus use an arbitrary declaration length of four or five years.

Note: A 30-day waiting period is applied to all Gift Aid declarations, based on the Date Received entered for the declaration. During the waiting period, no tax can be reclaimed for the contact. Once the 30-day period is over, donations received from the contact are eligible for Gift Aid reclaims.

Do the following to enter a Gift Aid declaration for a donor:

  1. In the Staff site, go to Community > Find contacts.
  2. Search for and select a contact, and go to the contact’s account page.
  3. Select the Gift Aid Declarations tab you added to the Staff account page.
  4. Click Create new declaration.
  5. Fill out the declaration information as needed.
    • Prefix, First Name, Last Name – Defaults to the selected contact's prefix and name. These fields must contain the name of the individual paying tax for the gift aid declaration.
    • Address, Address 2, Address 3, City, County, Postcode, Country – Defaults to the selected contact's main address in iMIS. For HMRC reporting purposes, the address fields must contain the taxpayer's correct address.

      • Note: If the donor’s Country field is left blank, iMIS assumes the donor’s address is in the United Kingdom. If the donor does not live in the United Kingdom, the Country field must be populated with the donor’s correct country.

    • High-rate tax payer – Indicates that the donor is a high rate tax payer. This field is for informational purposes only and does not affect the amount of tax reclaimed. You could use this information, for example, to target marketing campaigns to these donors.
    • Declaration Notes – Captures notes about the declaration.
    • Status – Specifies the status of the declaration.
    • Declaration Method – Specifies how the declaration was made.
    • Confirmation Required – Indicates that confirmation of the declaration must be obtained from the donor before any tax can be reclaimed. For example, a declaration made verbally requires confirmation. When cleared, no further confirmation is required.
    • Confirmation Sent Date – Specifies the date a confirmation letter was mailed to the donor.
    • Date Received – Specifies the date the donor made the declaration.

      • Note: A 30-day waiting period is applied to all Gift Aid declarations, based on the Date Received entered for the declaration. During the waiting period, no tax can be reclaimed for the contact. Once the 30-day period is over, donations received from the contact are eligible for Gift Aid reclaims.

    • Effective From – Specifies the date from which the declaration is valid.
      • Apply 4 year rule – Sets the effective date of the declaration to a rolling four-year period that equals today minus 4 years.
      • Other – Specifies a fixed date from which the declaration is valid.
    • Expiry Date – Specifies the end date of the declaration. An end date is not required. However, some organisations prefer to contact donors periodically to check that they are still taxpayers, and thus use an arbitrary declaration length of four or five years.
    • Related Appeal – Specifies a related appeal code associated with the receipt of the declaration.
  6. Click Save.

Do the following to generate Gift Aid tax reclaim data:

  1. In the Staff site, go to Fundraising > Gift Aid > Reclaim taxes.
  2. Enter the appropriate tax recovery information:
    • Tax Reclaim Reference – Specifies a unique reference for the claim. The reference can be any combination of letters, numbers, or special characters. It has a maximum length of 50 characters. 
    • From/To – Specifies the date range of the tax reclaim. The From and To dates must not cross the end of a UK tax year which runs from 6 April to 5 April the following year.
    • Tax Rate – Specifies the tax rate to be applied to the tax reclaim. Claims made for transactions before 6 April 2008 use a 22% tax rate, and transactions after that date use the prevailing tax rate.
  3. Click Generate Claim. The new claim appears in the Review Claim section.
  4. Select Review next to the new claim. The Claim Details page opens.
  5. Review the transactions in the claim.

    6. Note: iMIS does not check for missing or incomplete donor names in the claim. We recommend that you review the data and update records within iMIS as needed.

  6. (optional) From the In Claim column, use the transaction checkboxes to exclude or include transactions in the claim. You can locate specific transactions using the Transaction ID or Contact ID fields. Changes to the transactions in the claim are automatically saved as you make your selections.
  7. Submit a Gift Aid claim using the Gift Aid Utility. For more information, see Using the Gift Aid Utility to submit a Gift Aid claim.
  8. Return to the Staff site. To ensure that the transactions in the claim do not appear in any future claims, select Mark as Claimed.

Do the following to generate a Gift Aid tax reclaim report for the HMRC:

  1. In the Staff site, go to Fundraising > Gift Aid > Generate HMRC report.
  2. Select Gift Aid Claim Report and click Run.
  3. In the Gift Aid Reference Equals field, enter the claim’s Tax Reclaim Reference.
  4. Click Run. The tax reclaim report appears.
  5. To save the report to a PDF or Excel file, click the one of the export icons located in the top-left of the page.