Self-Assessment: Filling in the gift aid section if you *don't* want to claim additional tax relief

DeeBeeBee

Apologies if this is in the wrong forum and if it's a daft question…

I routinely tick the Gift Aid box when I give to charity. While I haven't been keeping a track of how much this amounts to annually, it certainly isn't anything like the amount of income tax I pay. 

As I'm a higher rate tax payer (just…) I realise that I'm entitled to claim  additional tax relief on the donations, but I don't want to exercise that right. (I don't actually know how much I gave at this late stage, and in any case the amount of relief would be tiny.)

The problem is that as far as I can see there's no way to say "I did give to charity but I don't want to claim any additional relief".

The actual wording of the help is 'If you pay tax at a rate above the basic rate, you're entitled to additional tax relief the calculation works it out for you', which implies that there should be a way of turning it down.

However, the form only asks "Did you give to charity? 'Yes' or 'No'", and answering 'No' is not strictly true… But if you answer 'Yes', the dedicated form assumes you want to claim.

(BTW, the help also says that the amount of gift aid is visible on my payslip and charity statement, but it's not on my pension statement and I don't think I have any charity statements…)

Any ideas as to how I should go about this?

Thanks!

Dazed_and_C0nfused

DeeBeeBee said:

Apologies if this is in the wrong forum and if it's a daft question…

I routinely tick the Gift Aid box when I give to charity. While I haven't been keeping a track of how much this amounts to annually, it certainly isn't anything like the amount of income tax I pay. 

As I'm a higher rate tax payer (just…) I realise that I'm entitled to claim  additional tax relief on the donations, but I don't want to exercise that right. (I don't actually know how much I gave at this late stage, and in any case the amount of relief would be tiny.)

The problem is that as far as I can see there's no way to say "I did give to charity but I don't want to claim any additional relief".

The actual wording of the help is 'If you pay tax at a rate above the basic rate, you're entitled to additional tax relief the calculation works it out for you', which implies that there should be a way of turning it down.

However, the form only asks "Did you give to charity? 'Yes' or 'No'", and answering 'No' is not strictly true… But if you answer 'Yes', the dedicated form assumes you want to claim.

(BTW, the help also says that the amount of gift aid is visible on my payslip and charity statement, but it's not on my pension statement and I don't think I have any charity statements…)

Any ideas as to how I should go about this?

Thanks!

If you are confident you have paid sufficient tax to cover the basic rate relief on the donations you have made I suspect most people would just answer No.

If you answer Yes you will need to provide a figure, even if that is an estimate.  And that will mean your basic rate band is increased by the gross contribution.

Isthisforreal99

If you don't want to claim it leave it blank, you are overthinking it. There is no way to say yes I paid but I don't want to claim higher rate relief.

YBR

If you know which charities, they will have the paperwork to show what gift aid they have claimed in any given tax year - sometimes I have had to ask them to confirm in order to back up tax returns and it hasn't been a problem.

DRS1

If you don't tick the gift aid box does that raise an issue for the charity which is presumably reporting Mr X gave us £y under gift aid?

DeeBeeBee

Thank you all for the comments – I suspect I am overthinking it a little, but I want to get it right…

The question @DRS1 asks did occur to me as well and I don't know the answer.

Thanks!

Dazed_and_C0nfused

DeeBeeBee said:

Thank you all for the comments – I suspect I am overthinking it a little, but I want to get it right…

The question @DRS1 asks did occur to me as well and I don't know the answer.

Thanks!

If you do tick the box what details do you need to provide about each charity 🤔

DRS1

OK You just give the amount but don't the charity need your name and address and you sign a bit saying you pay more than enough income tax.  So can't HMRC tie it up from the charity end?

Isthisforreal99

DRS1 said:

OK You just give the amount but don't the charity need your name and address and you sign a bit saying you pay more than enough income tax.  So can't HMRC tie it up from the charity end?

Technically they could but if the OP has paid sufficient tax to cover the amount reclaimed by the Charity (which he has) then why would they bother being concerned if someone decides not to claim HR relief.

Only time HMRC might do anything if is a non-taxpayer gift aids a payment to charity.

YBR

Just occasionally, HMRC ask the Gift-aider to prove their giving. I now try to keep records and report what I have records for so there may be a few bits missed.

Unfortunately most charities will claim gift aid on all past* and future donations they can trace to you rather than allowing an option for <this tax year only> which would suit me better.

*There is a limit how far they can go back retrospectively.

Strummer22

DeeBeeBee said:

As I'm a higher rate tax payer (just…) I realise that I'm entitled to claim  additional tax relief on the donations, but I don't want to exercise that right. (I don't actually know how much I gave at this late stage, and in any case the amount of relief would be tiny.)

Is there any particular reason why you don't want to claim the additional tax relief? 

If it's altruism, why not claim the additional tax relief, regardless of how small, and donate that to charity instead? It'll almost certainly do better going to a charity than to the gov to service Rachel's debts.