Brown relaxes Gift Aid rules
Chancellor drops request for charities to confirm gift aid claims in writing, making the relief easier to obtain
Gordon Brown has altered the rules on Gift Aid to make it easier to attract
tax relief for charitable donations.
Requests to get the relief given over the phone will now no longer require
charities to get a written confirmation subsequent to the conversation.
Andrew Hubbard, director of tax at Tenon, the top ten accountancy firm, said:
‘This is a welcome development. The current system creates a needless level of
administration. Charities will no longer have to employ staff, and incur postage
costs, simply to get people to confirm in writing what they have already said
over the phone. The new measures do not take effect until 1 November 2006. It’s
a pity that the change could not have come into effect today, but I understand
why there does need to be a short lead time so that charities can modify their
systems. In the long term we would support a regime under which all charitable
donations qualify for gift aid.’