national Trust deceptive gift aid tactic and hard sell.

verityboo

LannieDuck wrote: »

That's really odd - I didn't think gift aid worked like that. I thought that it meant they could claim the tax back on your ticket, not that they'd add extra to the ticket price.

Have I fundamentally misunderstood how it works?

No, you're not mistaken, it does work like that

Basically I feel its a con and taking advantage of peoples good nature. Gift aid is the reclaiming of tax on the ticket price, they could do this on the standard ticket price.

Instead they ask if people if they want to gift aid and I'm sure most would want to, these people are then rewarded by being charged a higher price. They therefore get more money from the visitor and can reclaim more tax

hubb

verityboo wrote: »

No, you're not mistaken, it does work like that

Basically I feel its a con and taking advantage of peoples good nature. Gift aid is the reclaiming of tax on the ticket price, they could do this on the standard ticket price.

Instead they ask if people if they want to gift aid and I'm sure most would want to, these people are then rewarded by being charged a higher price. They therefore get more money from the visitor and can reclaim more tax

Quite disgraceful really !

JohalaReewi

verityboo wrote: »

Gift aid is the reclaiming of tax on the ticket price, they could do this on the standard ticket price.

Not quite.
Gift Aid is reclaiming tax on charitable donations.
Where a charity charges an entrance fee, that fee is not a donation and cannot be gift aided. However, by asking for a donation on top of the entry fee, gift aid can be claimed.

All the info is here
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/charities/gift_aid/rules/admissions.htm

LannieDuck

JohalaReewi wrote: »

Not quite.
Gift Aid is reclaiming tax on charitable donations.
Where a charity charges an entrance fee, that fee is not a donation and cannot be gift aided. However, by asking for a donation on top of the entry fee, gift aid can be claimed.

All the info is here
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/charities/gift_aid/rules/admissions.htm

Thank you, that helps clarify a lot.

I'm going to have to be more on the ball about 'Gift aid' prices in future. (Not that I'm against the idea of donating in this way, but it's good to do it consciously rather than unwittingly!)

Pollycat

JohalaReewi wrote: »

Not quite.
Gift Aid is reclaiming tax on charitable donations.
Where a charity charges an entrance fee, that fee is not a donation and cannot be gift aided. However, by asking for a donation on top of the entry fee, gift aid can be claimed.

All the info is here
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/charities/gift_aid/rules/admissions.htm

It does explain it but HMRC say:

A donation that is 10 per cent more than the admission fee
Gift Aid can apply where a visitor has the option of paying the normal admission fee, but instead chooses to make a gift in the form of a donation that is at least 10 per cent more than the normal admission fee. In return for the donation your charity must allow them the same right of admission as a paying visitor would receive for paying the normal admission fee.

From what Hudd says, he wasn't given the choice of paying the 10% more, he was just told the entrance fee was £11.00 when it was really £9.90.
To me, that's not choosing to make a gift in the form of a donation.

If that is really what happened, I think it's sharp practice by NT and they should consider educating staff about the proper way to do this.

hubb

I have not heard back from NT yet. Perhaps it isn't a policy of the NT, just the man who is their rep and takes the money. Very very deceptive and underhand. It's bad enough you get mitherd to death to become a member.

Pollycat

hubb wrote: »

I have not heard back from NT yet. Perhaps it isn't a policy of the NT, just the man who is their rep and takes the money. Very very deceptive and underhand. It's bad enough you get mitherd to death to become a member.

Maybe it is just poor staff training or maybe the volunteer didn't really understand the difference between normal admission price and Gift Aid price and how he/she should offer it to customers.

I'd wait and see what NT say.

I would hope that it is just a mistake and not NT policy.

JohalaReewi

Pollycat wrote: »

From what Hudd says, he wasn't given the choice of paying the 10% more, he was just told the entrance fee was £11.00 when it was really £9.90.

To me, that's not choosing to make a gift in the form of a donation.

If that is really what happened, I think it's sharp practice by NT and they should consider educating staff about the proper way to do this.

Correct.
To make the donation gift aidable, the customer also has to be offered admission at the normal price. This is so the customer can choose to make a donation or not.

hubb

NT got back to me and kind of passed the hot potato to the House I visited and said I should be hearing from them soon. I would have thought the NT were responsible.

qetu1357

This has been raised on MSE before.

I actually went to a NT property on Sunday and there was a big clear sign stating the difference between a Gift Aid Admission and a standard admission.

The Gift Aid price allows the NT to claim Gift Aid on the entire price. They cannot claim any Gift Aid on the standard admission.

This is in line with HMRC guidelines which also state that it should be made clear to any visitor that they can gain admission for the standard admission price.

I believe the big signs make it so.