From April 2013 HMRC has announced that repayment claims by Charities and Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASCs) can be made electronically. The purpose is to make it easier for charities and CASCs to use the Charities Online service to submit their Gift Aid repayment claims, claims for repayment of tax on other income and claims under the new Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme (GASDS).
There will be three different ways for a claim to be submitted that will replace the current R68i print and post repayment forms. These are:
- Online
- Through a charity’s database
- Traditional paper form
HMRC states that the ability to send claims electronically will make the system more efficient and accurate as built-in checks will alert the sender to any errors before submission. For those that file Gift Aid claims for fewer than 1,000 donors, this does seem to be the best course of action as the details of up to 1,000 Gift Aid donors and aggregated donations can be electronically submitted. This is achieved by attaching a spreadsheet with the required Gift Aid donors’ details to an online claim form containing mandatory fields, which will be checked automatically for errors and omissions. Those filing over 1,000 Gift Aid claims can file through their own database, although smaller claims can also be made in this way. There will be no limit to the number of claims that can be submitted, and HMRC will accept up to 90 Gift Aid donor details with each individual claim.
The ability to submit claims via their own internal databases allows charities and CASCs to submit one claim per day, with details of up to 500,000 Gift Aid donors. However, in order to take advantage of this, the organisations will either have to develop their own compatible software package or purchase an appropriate one from a software provider.
The new paper repayment claim form, ChR1, will replace the existing R68 forms for all those who are unable to access the internet. Photocopies of either form will not be accepted.
In addition, the aggregated donations limit will increase to £1,000 per entry with claimants able to combine individual Gift Aid donations of £20 or less. Furthermore, for someone participating in a sponsored event, all donations will be accepted as a single entry under the name of the participant. However, individual donations of £500 or more shown on individual sponsor sheets will need to be separately listed and claimed for.
More details will be released from HMRC in February.