Gift Aid Your Donations

Gift Aid is a simple way to make your donations go further at no extra cost to you or Florence Nightingale Hospice Charity. It enables us to reclaim the basic rate of tax from HMRC and all you have to do is make a Gift Aid declaration. 

You are eligible as long as you pay income or capital gains tax in the UK on at least one of the following:

• Earnings, whether you’re an employee or self-employed
• Your pension
• Interest on savings
• Stocks and shares
• Dividends on investments
• Other income, eg from renting out a house

(You need to be paying enough tax to cover the Gift Aid claimed on your behalf by all the charities you support, not just Florence Nightingale Hospice Charity.)

It’s a statement by an individual taxpayer that they want a charity to claim from HMRC the tax paid on their donation. This simple process will add 25 per cent to the value of your gift to Florence Nightingale Hospice Charity without costing you a single penny more.

For example, with Gift Aid a £10 donation will now be worth £12.50 and for every £50 gift, we will actually receive £62.50.  

Claiming gift aid can significantly increase the income of a charity, at no extra cost to the supporter, meaning that more life changing money can go towards the cause. 

A completed Gift Aid Declaration will need:

• Your full name including salutation (Mr, Mrs, Ms etc); first name, surname and home address including house number and full post code.
• A donation made from a personal bank account or building society account
• Your signature

To qualify for Gift Aid on every £1 you donate to FNHC in any tax year (from 6 April to 5 April the following year), you must be a UK tax payer and have paid sufficient Income Tax or Capital Gains Tax (CGT) in the same tax year.

For example, if you donate £100, you must have paid at least £25 in Income Tax or Capital Gains Tax (CGT) in the same tax year for your entire donation to qualify for Gift Aid. You need to be paying enough tax to cover the Gift Aid claimed on your behalf by all the charities you support, not just Florence Nightingale Hospice Chairty.

The tax paid could be from at least one of the following:

• Earnings, whether you are self employed or an employee
• Your Pension
• Interest on savings
• Stocks and shares
• Dividends on investments
• Other income (eg from rental income, sale of a property or assets)

Tax paid under Inheritance Tax, Council Tax or VAT do not qualify towards Gift Aid.

• A completed Gift Aid form including your salutation (eg Mr, Mrs, Ms etc), first name, surname and home address
• A donation made from a personal bank or building society account
• For you to be paying income tax or capital gains tax which at least equals the amount Florence Nightingale Hospice Charity and other charities and community amateur sports clubs will claim on your behalf in that tax year (6th April one year to 5th April the next).

Once you’ve become a Gift Aid donor, please let us know if you stop paying tax or if you change your name or address, so that we can update our records.

We won’t be able to claim the tax back if:

• the donation was on behalf of someone else or a group of people
• the donation was on behalf of a company

Yes we are able to claim Gift Aid on items donated to our shops under the Retail Gift Aid scheme.

If you’re a UK taxpayer, you’ll need to complete a declaration form, including your name, address and signature.  This can be done in the shop, or you can download our Retail Gift Aid Form here and bring it in with your donations.

The money claimed back from HMRC as part of the Gift Aid scheme will be treated as unrestricted funds and used to support our general work, even if your original donation was made towards a specific project.

If you don’t pay enough tax in the tax period to cover the amount we will recover from HMRC on your donation, unfortunately you are not able to make a Gift Aid Declaration.

If you have made a Gift Aid Declaration, please let us know if you cease to pay enough Income Tax or Capital Gains Tax to cover the amount we will recover from HMRC on the donations you make. We will amend our records so we do not make a gift aid claim on your donation. Please let us know by contacting us in one of the following ways:

Email: fundraising@fnhospice.org.uk

Phone: 01296 429975

Write: Unit 2 Walton Lodge, Walton Street, AYLESBURY, Bucks, HP21 7QY

Cancelled declarations do not impact Gift Aid donations already made. Once a declaration has been cancelled, any future donations will not qualify for Gift Aid.

You may still pay tax on a private pension plan or a savings account, or pay Capital Gains Tax if you sell property or shares. If so, you will be eligible to complete a Gift Aid Declaration.

As a higher rate tax payer, if you declare your donations on your tax return, you can claim a rebate based on the difference between the higher rate and the basic rate of tax. Florence Nightingale Hospice Charity can only directly claim back at the basic rate.

After you sign up for Gift Aid, it normally covers past, present and future donations. We can back-claim for four years and we’ll continue to do so until you ask us not to. So please make sure you let us know if you move address or you stop paying tax.

If donations are made from a joint bank account, we ask that just one person completes the Gift Aid Declaration. They must be a UK tax payer, and have paid enough tax to cover the Gift Aid that will be claimed on your joint donations each tax year including any other donations they make.

Any donations:

• From a non UK Tax Payer
• Made on behalf of someone else or a group of people (eg funeral collections, anonymous collections at events like quiz nights)
• Made on behalf of a company, organisation or groups
• To a family member participating in an event where the charity is contributing to their costs
• Made in return for goods, services or rights (eg ticket sales for an event).

Gift Aid can only be claimed on personal, voluntary donations by eligible individuals.

If you would like more information about gift aid, please visit the HMRC website