Gift Aid Admission Prices

cheekychappy

Is it the new thing to have two tier priceing to get in places now, a higher gift aid price or a lower price often said for non UK tax payers?
Do I have to pay the higher price, as with some attractions, it makes them quite expensive.
I appreceiate a lot of these organisations need to get as much income as possible, but if it disuades me (or others) from going, then does it not make it counter productive?

ankspon

I have opted for gift aid before but the admission price was the same,where is the two different prices?

Housework*Fairy

Eureka in Halifax did have this pricing structure a couple of years ago, I don't know if they still do. My friend who I was with told the cashiers she would pay the entrance fee without the gift aid. I was cringing because I thought it seemed a bit 'tight' but it is expensive to get into Eureka, and I guess that way of thinking is why she's not a member of this site but I am :rotfl:

p00hsticks

cheekychappy wrote: »

Is it the new thing to have two tier priceing to get in places now, a higher gift aid price or a lower price often said for non UK tax payers?
Do I have to pay the higher price, as with some attractions, it makes them quite expensive.
I appreceiate a lot of these organisations need to get as much income as possible, but if it disuades me (or others) from going, then does it not make it counter productive?

I've never come across anywhere that charges more if you use gift aid - in fact, if anything I would have thought it should be the other way round, and that they would charge slightly less to encourage you to do so - a place could afford to give you a discount if you werre prepared to gift aid as they then claim an additional amount back from HMRC).

Can you give an example of places that effectively charge you to use giftaid ?
If you don't want to pay it, you could simply say that you're not a taxpayer (you don't need you be foreign, any pensioner who is just on a state pension wouldn't pay tax, for example) .

cheekychappy

Two examples I have experienced are...

Twycross Zoo
http://www.twycrosszoo.org/admission-prices.aspx

Nene Valley Railway
http://www.nvr.org.uk/thomas/tba.php

I believed I was being concientious by filling the form out thinking that some of the admission fee gets a tax break, but I did not realise I was paying more.

greenface

By paying the entrance price you are supporting the place . dont pay extra for a "donation" they can claim back from standard price if you agree to gift aid it. Your paying more there claiming more.

Ive never come across this but will keep my eye out in future thanks

vikingaero

It's a bit of a hot potato how some places charge and allocate money for gift aid. Some do it "correctly" by making everyone pay the same admission fee, others now have split fees.

Originally I thought that if I paid the advertised rate of £15 to enter an attraction, then I could gift aid my entry fee and they would receive an amount on top from HMRC (or offset the tax that they have to pay). This seemed the fairest way to do it. Everyone pays the same but they receive a bonus if the admittee gets gift aid.

But now some places are blurring the line by having two prices - a bit unfair.

cheekychappy

I thought it was a bit starnge at Twycross that the staff were handing out the Gift Aid forms in the queue and putting their names on the top of them, so they are obviously getting sales commission of some form.

shandypants5

The Black country museum charges the same price either way, but if you agree to gift aid they give you a free return visit voucher.

System

Nene Valley doesn't seem to show their charity number. I thought that it needed to be shown especially if you are trying to claim Gift aid

p00hsticks

cheekychappy wrote: »

I thought it was a bit starnge at Twycross that the staff were handing out the Gift Aid forms in the queue and putting their names on the top of them, so they are obviously getting sales commission of some form.

Not sales commission - the 'gift aid' scheme allows charities to claim back from HMRC the tax that any UK tax payer will have paid on the earnings that they are effectively using to pay the admission price/ make a donation.

I suspect that some charities (e.g. Nene Valley railway) are mis-using this term 'gift aid' to incorrectly mean 'making a voluntary donation', instead of it's correct usage described above, hence the confusion.

Looking at the Twycross Zoo link posted, the difference in the two admission prices quoted ISN'T actually due to gift aid at all, but rather one includes a 10% donation - the web site says;

" Please note: Twycross Zoo relies upon the generosity of its visitors to support our conservation work. The prices above include a donation to our conservation work and are 10% more than our standard entry prices. If you choose not to make this donation then you may instead pay the normal entry price as indicated in the entrance prices (opt-out) table below."

I would imagine that you could still then use 'gift aid' whether you selected to make the donation or opt out - it wouldn't cost you any more than if you didn't 'gift aid' but would allow the zoo to claim money back from HMRC.