Skip to content
allanninal.dev/build
Collaborate

Part 4 of 7 · Gift Aid claimer series ~5 min read

Building the claim, and the cap that catches people out

Once every donation is labelled, the claim is arithmetic. The part worth knowing is that the two schemes are not independent: the one that needs no paperwork is limited by the one that does.

Key takeaways

  • The claim is a sum. Getting there was the work.
  • The small-donations allowance is annual and does not roll over.
  • That allowance is also capped at ten times the ordinary Gift Aid claimed.
  • Claim within four years of the end of the accounting period.
  • Never claim a partial period. Wait for the close.

The two schemes are not independent

How the small-donations route is limited by the ordinary Gift Aid claimA horizontal row of five boxes joined by arrows. Gift Aid claimed, thirty-five thousand seven hundred pounds from two thousand nine hundred and five donations. Matching rule: the small route is capped at ten times that. Headroom: three hundred and fifty-seven thousand pounds of small donations allowed. Annual allowance: the scheme's own yearly ceiling. Claimed: one thousand nine hundred and seventy-five pounds on seven thousand nine hundred. A note says the matching rule binds on nothing here because ordinary Gift Aid is large, but for a charity that claims almost none it is the binding constraint.WHY THE EASY MONEY DEPENDS ON THE HARD MONEYGift Aid claimedGBP 35,700 from2,905 donationsMatching rulesmall route capped at10x thatHeadroomGBP 357,000 of smalldonations allowedAnnual allowancethe scheme's ownyearly ceilingClaimedGBP 1,975 onGBP 7,900Here the matching rule binds on nothing, because ordinary Gift Aid is large. For a charity that claims almost none, it is the binding constraint.
Fig 1. Five boxes, and the second is the one nobody expects. A charity with no declarations cannot fall back on the scheme that needs none.
  • App integration
  • Machine learning
  • Networking
  • Security & identity

What the arithmetic actually is

Gift Aid is the basic rate reclaimed on the gross equivalent of the donation, which works out at twenty-five pence per pound given. There is no tapering, no threshold and no discretion. Every routed donation contributes its amount times a quarter, and the claim is the sum.

The small-donations route pays the same rate on donations that qualified for it, up to an annual allowance, and that allowance does not carry forward. A charity sitting on a large cash income and a thin declaration file will hit both the allowance and the matching rule, and it is worth knowing which one bit first, because they have different fixes.

Timing

Building a claim after the accounting period closesA vertical chain inside an AWS account container, entered from a box on the left labelled Period close, the accounting year ends. Freeze the routing means no late declarations change this run. Sum by scheme totals ordinary Gift Aid then small donations. Apply the caps applies the allowance then the matching rule. Produce the schedule gives one line per donation or an aggregate. Write the evidence happens before anything is submitted. A note says freezing first is what makes the claim reproducible, and a declaration arriving the next morning belongs to the next run rather than this one.AWS ACCOUNTPeriod closethe accountingyear endsFreeze the routingno late declarationschange this runSum by schemeordinary, thensmall donationsApply the capsallowance, then thematching ruleProduce the scheduleone line per donationor aggregateWrite the evidencebefore anything issubmittedFreezing first is what makes the claim reproducible. A declaration that arrives the next morning belongs to the next run, not this one.
Fig 2. Five steps in a fixed order. The freeze is not bureaucracy; it is what lets somebody re-run this in four years and get the same answer.
  • Storage
  • Security & identity
  • Analytics

Four years, and why you should not use them

A claim can be made up to four years after the end of the accounting period it relates to, which is generous and is mostly there for exactly the case this system is designed to prevent. It is worth using once, deliberately, when a charity first builds this and discovers what it has been missing.

After that it should never be needed. A claim made annually against a frozen routing is a twenty-minute job; a four-year catch-up is an archaeology project, and the records that make it possible are exactly the records that decay.

What the claim run has to produce

  • The schedule. What is being claimed, by scheme and by donation.
  • The caps applied. Which limit bound, and by how much.
  • The excluded. Every donation not claimed, with its reason.
  • The frozen inputs. Declarations and donations exactly as they stood.
  • A re-runnable query. Same inputs, same answer, four years later.
All posts