Publicising how charities can claim tax relief on items donated

PennyPurple

I have just sent the following to MSE. I wondered what are other people's knowledge / experience of this? I can't help feeling that if more pople knew about this the charities would get much more money via the tax relif?

Hi,

I was wondering if it might be possible for you to please publicise the fact that charities can claim tax relief on items donated to charity shops.

My Mum and I only found out about this recently, after she donated a load of my Dad’s clothes (he died 1st Apr) to our local Mind charity shop. She was asked if she was a tax payer and was given a Doner ID so they could track the sales of the items she donated so they could then claim tax relief on them. A few weeks after donating she received a letter advising how much the items they had sold had raised (just a total sum – not a breakdown). The letter advised that they were duty-bound to tell her this so that they could claim the tax relief.

After asking around our friends and family we only found one person who was aware of this. We think that if more people are aware then they can ensure that they ask the charity shop to claim the tax relief and overall the charities would benefit greatly. A number of times Mum has donated and has not been asked about tax relief or even in the same Mind shop was not asked for her doner number.

This is the HMRC page that explains the scheme:
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/charities/gift_aid/rules/retail.htm

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Best Regards,
Penny

LittleVoice

Can I also put in a request for charity shop staff to be sensitive to how donors are feeling.

To explain - I was in a shop (not Mind) when someone brought goods in and was being pressed for her details by the shop assistant so that they could claim the tax. This donor clearly did not want to give her details (stating that she had never been asked for it before) and appeared suspicious. The assistant hadn't asked whether she was a tax payer and didn't really explain the system. The assistant then got another member of staff (the manager) who also did not explain the system or say that the donor did not have to give her name and address and participate!

The donor clearly felt pressured, didn't want to give her personal details (for all in the shop to hear because there was nowhere private) and I suspect the shop wouldn't get any more donations from her. So rather counter-productive.


I sensed that the donor would not bring anything else to that particular shop because she was clearly not happy about it.

Savvy_Sue

The scheme has been mentioned before, so clearly people are becoming aware of it, and I notice that many shops have an extra little label on some goods which they stick on a separate sheet when a sale is made, presumably allowing them to track the Gift Aid.

But I do agree with LittleVoice, shop staff do need to be well trained so that they explain the scheme well, and also be sensitive to people's mood at the time. I can imagine if I'd just taken in a donation after a bereavement, I might not be willing to stop and register for fear of breaking down!

IIRC, it took a while for the 'new' Gift Aid scheme to become well known and accepted when Deeds of Covenant were phased out, so I imagine the same will happen in this case.