Self assessment gift aid claim for gift aid made previous tax year but not claimed

littlemoney

My 2024/25 was calculated and submitted by a tax accountant ( too scared to do the first one). I forgot to give her my gift aid amount that I made during that year.

I'm doing self assessment for 2025/26 and when I got to the gift aid section it reminded me I hadn't included gift aid on 2024/25 return.

I have been reading about being able to claim for previous year's with some say you can others say you cannot.

If it is possible how do I include it in my 2025/26 return. I may have missed the option on the return or is it not as simple as that.

Thanks

Woodstok2000

According to MSE you can claim back up to 4 years:

Can I claim tax relief on charity donations from previous years?

If you weren't aware you could claim additional tax relief on charity donations, then you can make a claim for overpayment relief going back four tax years.

We're currently in the 2026/27 tax year, which ends on 5 April 2027, so you could claim as far back as the 2022/23 tax year.

Though, of course, you'll need to have records of gift-aided charitable donations you made in those years.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/gift-aid/

Isthisforreal99

No, it's not as simple as putting it on your 25/26 Tax Return.

Were you higher rate in 24/25?

littlemoney

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82129593#Comment_82129593

Yes I was. What are the implications of this

I had a feeling that it wasn't as simple as making an entry on 25/26 and didn't know what to to.

Do you know what I need to do?

LITRG

Hello, you can find some guidance on amending a prior year tax return here: https://www.litrg.org.uk/tax-nic/how-tax-collected/self-assessment-and-tax-returns/amending-tax-return. Some of the confusion over gift aid and previous tax years can be due to the carry back provisions where it is sometimes possible to treat a contribution in one year as made in the prior tax year: https://www.litrg.org.uk/tax-nic/income-tax/gift-aid#12 Hope that helps explain what you may have been reading. Thanks

littlemoney

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82129781#Comment_82129781

My situation is I made gift aid payments in tax year 2024/25 and claim any gift aid on my 2024/25 return.

Trying to find out if I can do anything about this ominous and get it recognised or is it too late and nothing can be done.

The link doesn't seem to cover this.

You may like to know that the first links no longer works

Hope I'm explaining my situation clearly

sheramber

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82129813#Comment_82129813

Amend 24/25 tax return

https://www.gov.uk/self-assessment-tax-returns/corrections

zagfles

Did the accountant ask you if you'd made gift aid contributions? If she didn't I'd put in a complaint and get her to sort it out, this is basic stuff if you're paying someone to do a tax return for you.

littlemoney

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82129948#Comment_82129948

She did ask but I said no. Only later did I realise that I had made gift aid contributions, one of which I do yearly and I'd forgotten it was gift aided.

Had appreciated the impact of gift aid as its only recently I have become higher rate due to higher savings interest and dividend returns.

Only a little over the limit but has big impact.

Previously been just PAYE and below the threshold

DRS1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82129831#Comment_82129831

I think the only way you could put it in the 25/6 return and relate it back to 24/5 is if the payment was actually made in 25/6. If you made the payment in 24/5 then as above you need to amend the 24/5 return.

But maybe that means going back to the accountant and admitting you forgot to tell her about it.

LITRG

Hello, sorry the link didn't work. This one hopefully does and tells you about amending your 24/25 tax return, the deadlines for doing this, and links to the GOV.UK page with step by step instructions for making the amendment, depending on whether you file online or on paper. Hope you get it sorted: https://www.litrg.org.uk/tax-nic/how-tax-collected/self-assessment-and-tax-returns/amending-tax-return