Gift Aid

Gift Aid is a government scheme that allows charities to reclaim the tax that you have already paid on your donations through income tax or capital gains tax. Most donations from individuals made in the last four years are eligible for the scheme, unless made using an alternative tax effective scheme such as Payroll Giving, or via the Charities Aid Foundation or a similar agency. Regular donations such as standing orders and direct debits can be included in Gift Aid claims made by charities.

The declaration gives The Vegan Society authority to reclaim tax from Inland Revenue on your donation. By making the declaration, you are confirming you understand this.

You are a UK income tax payer if:

• Tax is taken from your wages or pension before you receive them.
• You have to fill in a self-assessment form.
• You have any taxable savings (in a building society, for instance), or a pension plan, or investment income.
• You have recently paid any capital gains tax, or expect to pay it in the near future. This could be on the sale of a property or some shares, for example.

If any of these apply to you, please complete and submit your declaration today.

Please email or call us on 0121 827 9905, and we will happily record details of this change.

Charities can only claim back tax at the basic rate, but that is still worth 25% to us, so please complete and return the declaration anyway.

As a higher-rate taxpayer you have the right to reclaim tax on your donations. All you have to do is remember to include details of your charitable gifts on your self-assessment tax form to claim your additional personal tax relief of 20%. Furthermore, since April 2003, higher-rate taxpayers have been able to reclaim tax relief from donations paid to charity both during the previous tax year and during the current tax year, which means that the relief is paid that much more quickly.

If you would like a receipt for eligible donations that you have made, then please email or call us on 0121 827 9905

An example of the calculation:

Mr Watson has made a donation of £100 and The Vegan Society reclaims the tax on his donation - £25. However, Mr Watson is a higher-rate taxpayer of 40%, so he is able to claim tax relief on this donation too. He is eligible to claim the difference between the higher rate of tax (40%) he has paid on his salary, and the basic rate of tax (20%) reclaimed by The Vegan Society (40% - 20% = 20%).

So a donation of £125 (gross, minus the top-up) will generate £25 tax relief (20% of £125).

To put it simply, the donation has cost Mr Watson £75, but The Vegan Society has received £125 towards its vital work.

You may still be paying tax on a private pension plan or a savings account, or pay capital gains tax if you sell either a property or shares. You are still eligible if you have paid enough tax during the year to cover your donations (e.g. 25% of the value of your donations).

Yes, your donations are still eligible for Gift Aid, but we need to keep your personal details separate for our records. Please email or call us on 0121 827 9905. They will either confirm these details with you or send you a form to complete.

If you had a covenant in existence on 05 April 2000, you can continue to make the payments due under that deed of covenant until it expires without having to complete a Gift Aid declaration. But if you make additional donations or change the value of your donation, you must complete a declaration to cover those donations if you want us to be able to recover the tax on them.

The Vegan Society cannot reclaim tax on donations made through Charities Aid Foundation as the tax has already been reclaimed for you. However, we would be grateful if you could complete and return the declaration form anyway so that any donations you have not made from your Charities Aid Foundation account or might make directly to us can be tax-effective as well.

You can support as many UK charities as you like through Gift Aid. All you need to do is to return a declaration to each charity that you support and ensure that you are paying enough tax during the year to cover your total annual donations.

There’s no catch. It really is that easy. Just tick the declaration and return it to The Vegan Society to enable us to make your donation worth more without costing you a penny.

No. You just need to tick the box on the declaration once and it will cover donations you have already made to The Vegan Society in the last four years and donations you make in the future.

If, for any reason, you decide that your donation should not be included in Gift Aid – for example, if you think that you will not be paying enough tax to cover the tax reclaimed by us – then simply email or call us on 0121 827 9905 and ask for the declaration to be withdrawn.

Completing a Gift Aid declaration does not put you under any obligation to give again – it merely ensures that we can reclaim tax on the donations that you have already made and any you may make in the future, so that your gifts go further at no extra cost to you.