Gift Aid – What Is Gift Aid & How Does It Work?
Gift Aid is one of the most important tax benefits available to museums in the UK; it gives registered charities the opportunity to claim back extra money from the government on each donation received.
Gift Aid is one of the most important tax benefits available to museums in the UK; it gives registered charities the opportunity to claim back extra money from the government on each donation received.
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In the UK, Gift Aid is a tax incentive that encourages individuals to donate to charitable attractions via tax-effective giving. Introduced as part of the Finance Act way back in 1990, Gift Aid to date has helped thousands of attractions that also act as charities to generate additional income and put it towards their cause.
When visiting charitable attractions most visitors are likely to donate with cash or contactless. In 2016, Gift Aid was added to 52% of the total value of donations, amounting to an extra £1.16bn donated to charity through the Gift Aid scheme. However, whilst most people have heard of Gift Aid, not everyone is certain of how it works. Reassuring visitors when they visit your attraction or explaining they are making a difference when choosing to purchase a ticket with Gift Aid can help them understand just how much they are supporting your cause.
If your visitor lives in the UK and pays UK income tax then they are eligible to make a donation with Gift Aid. When purchasing admissions tickets either online or at your admissions desk you just need to capture a few details such as Name, Address and Postcode plus check a box to confirm they are a UK tax payer. Making sure these details are all correct will make a huge difference to whether you can claim the additional 25% from the government. Most EPOS solutions or online ticketing functions will have a post code look up function to ensure details are accurate.
If you are an eligible charitable attraction that accepts donations from visitors, who are UK taxpayers, and provide free admission in return, yes.
Yes why not! We have worked with many charitable attractions who by claiming the additional 25% Gift Aid have managed to grow their attraction and invest in their charitable efforts. Beamish Museum in County Durham adopted a Gift Aid strategy to help them restore more building and educate more school trips and visitors. You can read more about their case study here. Similar to them Chiltern Open Air Museum used to have a cash tin, relying on kind donations from visitors to continue their restoration work. Since introducing online ticketing & admissions with Gift Aid they managed to accelerate the growth of their site and increase the footfall of visitors.
VisiSoft work with you to ensure that you maximise your Gift Aid revenue streams, whether this be through helping to accurately capture the correct data at admissions or through our intelligent Gift Aid reporting that is fully HMRC compliant. To learn more about our Gift Aid processing or to have a demo of how this could work for your attraction contact our team.
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