If your organization is officially registered with HMRC in the UK, chances are you’ve dealt with making Gift Aid submissions. This tedious process can take time away from what matters most – your mission. In this article, we’ll share Donorbox’s exciting HMRC automation that allows you to focus on growing your impact.
For the tax year ending in 2023, His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) paid £1.6 billion in Gift Aid to eligible charities. That’s a significant boost to those charities’ contributed income and resulted in a lot of important, mission-based work! While Gift Aid can be a huge benefit for nonprofits, there are significant administrative hassles associated with filing each gift with HMRC. That’s where Donorbox’s automated HMRC gift aid submission add-on for Pro and Premium users comes in.
Read on to learn the ins and outs of Gift Aid and automated HMRC submissions, including how Donorbox’s automation works and how to set it up.
Gift Aid is a program in the UK that allows donors to make even more of an impact while also enjoying tax benefits themselves. Through Gift Aid, UK donors can increase the overall value of their gift by 25%.
This means that for every £1 donated by a donor, HMRC donates an additional 25p.
To claim that additional 25%, organizations must be:
Learn more about the Gift Aid requirements for organizations here.
Donors must make a Gift Aid declaration at the time of giving or shortly after in order for organizations to claim most gifts. In the cases of cash gifts of £20 or less where there has not been a Gift Aid declaration, organizations may still be able to make a claim.
Claiming Gift Aid requires organizations to submit spreadsheets with up to 1,000 gifts to be processed, or to use eligible software.
When not automated, this process can take up a significant amount of time for any fundraiser – which is why automated services like Donorbox Gift Aid are increasingly popular.
Now that we’ve covered the basics of Gift Aid and HMRC submission, let’s look at three key benefits of using a platform offering automated Gift Aid submissions.
Compiling all the gifts you need to submit into one spreadsheet can be an incredibly tedious task. It takes time to locate all gifts with a Gift Aid declaration, format them into the spreadsheet requirements, and then manually send the spreadsheet to HMRC.
Donorbox makes this process seamless. Once you enable Gift Aid contributions (more on this later!), you can automatically collect those Gift Aid declarations as your donors make their gifts. Then, Donorbox’s integration with HMRC will automatically send those gifts as Gift Aid claims.
This saves you time that you should be spending forming better donor relationships.
We’re all human, and humans make mistakes. When you’re manually submitting Gift Aid donations to HMRC, it’s easy to miss some or accidentally submit the same gift twice. This slows down your submission process and ultimately leads to delays in your organization receiving the bonus funds that you need.
Donorbox’s automated HMRC submissions remove this element as all gifts marked as Gift Aid will automatically get submitted – no room for human error! Plus, easily track any failed submissions so you know exactly where you stand.
Submitting to HMRC is one thing. Checking the status of your submission to ensure you get the funds you deserve is another.
Automating your HMRC submissions through Donorbox allows you to take a truly hands-off approach. Donorbox will automatically update the status of your donation once your Gift Aid has been approved, keeping you and your records up to date.
Donorbox provides an easy-to-use integration with HMRC that is secure from start to finish. Pro and Premium users will simply access the integration app on Donorbox to activate the add-on and connect their HMRC account. We’ll demonstrate this in the next section!
When a registered organization receives a Gift Aid donation through their Donorbox donation form, Donorbox sends a Gift Aid claim to the HMRC transaction engine. Once the claim’s credentials are validated, the request is forwarded to the charity service for processing.
That’s it! Donorbox’s powerful automation takes care of the busy work for you. And even better – it’s super simple to set up.
Setting up automated HMRC claims only takes a few steps. Remember that you need a Pro or Premium account to access these automated submissions, so be sure you’re signed up for one of these plans first.
If you don’t already have Gift Aid contributions set up on Donorbox, follow these easy steps to get started. Be sure to enable Gift Aid on your campaigns.
Once you’re logged in to your Donorbox account, locate the HMRC integration in the menu on the left side of your screen.
Note: This option will only appear after you’ve set up Gift Aid contributions, so be sure to complete that step first.
From the HMRC Gift Aid Submission screen, activate this service by clicking “Activate Add-on.”
Remember that you must have a Pro or Premium plan to use this add-on. You can upgrade your plan at any time through your My Plan page. Learn more about pricing and the differences between these plans here.
Once the add-on is activated, you’ll need to provide your HMRC credentials and some other key information. Note that your credentials are encrypted and stored in a secure database.
If you need to create an HMRC account for your charity, you can do so here.
Here’s what the submission form looks like:
From the HMRC Gift Aid Submission page, you’ll be able to see all eligible donations that have been submitted. You’ll also see any submissions that have failed and any non-eligible submissions.
Here, you can check error logs with more information about failed submissions and ineligible donations, as well as any additional errors that may cause failures or result in eligible donations. These errors might come about as a result of an incorrect postal code or if the donation currency is not in GBP.
That’s it! Once the integration is set up, all of your HMRC submissions will be managed by Donorbox, making getting more from Gift Aid donations effortless.
Whether you’re new to Gift Aid or a seasoned pro, there’s no doubt that submitting your eligible donations can be an arduous but ultimately worthwhile process. Increasing a donation by 25% can add up in a significant way – a £50 donation becomes £62.50, a £100 donation becomes £125, and so on.
Donorbox’s seamless HMRC submission automation takes the work out of claiming this additional percentage, saving you time and bringing in more money for your cause. By signing up for a Pro or Premium membership to activate this add-on, you could be bringing in an additional 25p per £1 donation without lifting a finger.
Donorbox Pro and Premium plans offer significant benefits designed to help you fundraise smarter. Learn more about what each plan offers here and sign up today!
To discover more ways to boost your fundraising, check out the rest of our Nonprofit Blog. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive the best of the blog in your inbox every month.
Lindsey spent years wearing many hats in the nonprofit world. Whether she was helping arts nonprofits with their messaging and content, planning a fundraising gala, writing an NEA grant proposal, or running a membership program with over 400 members, she learned how to navigate – and appreciate! – the fast-paced world of fundraising. Now, she loves sharing those hard-earned lessons with the Donorbox community.
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Lindsey Baker Bower