Gift aid

Basia022

just watched Martin's video about how gift aid will not cost you anything - i stopped using it a few years ago because .... I complete a tax return and usually get a rebate. They ask have you used giftaid and how much? I noticed that if I siad yes and how much, my rebate was reduced - this looked right to me, so using giftaid was costing me money?? or am i doing something wrong?

On-the-coast

Don’t fully follow what you’re saying (it’s unclear), but one way in which this counterintuitive reduction could apply is if hmrc have estimated that you’ll be making giftaid contributions and this was already baked into your tax code (so you’ve already effectively received the rebate).  Then if you enter a figure on your SA form that’s lower than hmrc estimate you’ll have to pay some of that benefit back. 

TheSpectator

Gift Aid is not suitable for non taxpayers.

Mach74

Got a question relating to Gift Aid

I am self employed with 10k personal savings

I want to give 10k personal savings to charity

Do I have to a) declare this on SE even though it is personal savings I am giving away and b) as I under the tax threshold is gift aid not good as I will have to pay it back via SE?

TheSpectator

a) not sure what you mean by 'declare' but all payments that the charity will claim gift aid on need to go in your Tax Return.

b) The charity will claim £2500 Gift Aid on a gift aided donation of £10000. If you have not already paid sufficient tax to cover the £2500 you will have to pay it back. So either make a non-gift added donation of £10000, or a gift aided one of £8000, the charity claims £2000 Gift Aid and you pay the £2000 tax charge to HMRC.

Savvy_Sue

To put it very simply, if you don't pay either income tax or Capital Gains tax, don't Gift Aid.

https://www.gov.uk/claim-gift-aid/gift-aid-declarations is for charities, but sets out clearly what you're asked to sign.