Textile Collections and Gift Aid

Haarlem

Recently I went to a presentation by HMCustoms and Excise where it was raised that some door to door collections are asking for names and addresses to enable the charity to claim the tax if the givers were tax payers.

The representative from HMC&E said they were concerned about these request as no schemes had been authorised by them. He asked for any suggestions from collectors that Gift Aid could be collected for their bags to be forwarded to HMC&E.

EastEndLass

This surprises me - charity shops have been claiming Gift Aid on donated goods since 2006. Some charities have been extending this to include their bag drops to maximise the value of donations made (Sue Ryder Care and British Heart Foundation for example have been doign this for quite some time).

HMRC are well aware of this.

horsechestnut

I gift aid the articles that I donate to Oxfam. The other month I received a letter saying how much they had sold the good for so that I could inform the Tax if necessary. Seemingly I will get one each year and need to retain it.

Haarlem

EastEndLass wrote: »

This surprises me - charity shops have been claiming Gift Aid on donated goods since 2006. Some charities have been extending this to include their bag drops to maximise the value of donations made (Sue Ryder Care and British Heart Foundation for example have been doign this for quite some time).

HMRC are well aware of this.

HMRC are aware and happy where charity shops can track, and record how much an item has realised and then let the donor know how much it has realised.

They are not happy with the door to door collections where the actual value of the donation cannot be tracked.

EastEndLass

horsechestnut wrote: »

I gift aid the articles that I donate to Oxfam. The other month I received a letter saying how much they had sold the good for so that I could inform the Tax if necessary. Seemingly I will get one each year and need to retain it.

You don't need to retain it unless you are a higher rate taxpayer and wish to claim the additional tax.

EastEndLass

Haarlem wrote: »

HMRC are aware and happy where charity shops can track, and record how much an item has realised and then let the donor know how much it has realised.

They are not happy with the door to door collections where the actual value of the donation cannot be tracked.

BHF & SRC for example CAN still tack the value of the door to door collections in exactly the same way as if they had been brought in to the shop over the threshold. HMRC are happy with this.

Haarlem

EastEndLass wrote: »

BHF & SRC for example CAN still tack the value of the door to door collections in exactly the same way as if they had been brought in to the shop over the threshold. HMRC are happy with this.

I am only passing on information from a recent HMRC presentation in York.

Savvy_Sue

EastEndLass wrote: »

This surprises me - charity shops have been claiming Gift Aid on donated goods since 2006. Some charities have been extending this to include their bag drops to maximise the value of donations made (Sue Ryder Care and British Heart Foundation for example have been doign this for quite some time).

HMRC are well aware of this.

EastEndLass wrote: »

BHF & SRC for example CAN still tack the value of the door to door collections in exactly the same way as if they had been brought in to the shop over the threshold. HMRC are happy with this.

Haarlem wrote: »

I am only passing on information from a recent HMRC presentation in York.

I suspect we may be confusing two different kinds of collections.

In our area, St Peter's Hospice runs their own collection service, you phone and say "I've got 6 bags of my dad's old shirts, when can you collect?" and they come out in their own vans and pick it up. Since they run a Gift Aid scheme on donated goods, it should be possible for them to track these. Can't see why HMRC would have a problem, since it is the shops not the collection service which is making the claim.

We also get the bags left on our doorsteps by 'generic' companies, who are not necessarily collecting for any specific charity but are just recycling clothes, passing some on to charity shops, and sending others abroad, with a small (tiny?) percentage being given to a charity (maybe).

I can't see how the latter could be registered for Gift Aid with HMRC because of the way they operate.

I could be quite wrong here, but we seem to be talking about two different kinds of collections!

EastEndLass

There is a LOT of publicity at the moment about clothing collection companies and 'bogus' charity collectors - however, I have never heard of any of these asking for names and addresses. that would be a completely new thing and should definitely be reported to the ACS if substantiated!