Gift Aid claimer
A small system for any charity that takes donations: declarations captured and dated, every donation sorted into the route it actually qualifies for, a claim built against the schemes’ own caps, and an evidence file that outlives the claim by six years. Seven posts on the same system, one diagram at a time, with a cost breakdown and an engineering reference at the end.
- 01
A Gift Aid claimer on AWS for a few dollars a month
The whole system on one page — declarations, donations, routing and evidence — and why the money you lose to Gift Aid is lost to paperwork rather than to tax.
- 02
The date on the declaration decides everything
Capturing declarations from paper, web and verbal routes into a record with an effective date and an explicit statement of what it covers.
- 03
Routing a donation: Gift Aid, small donations, or neither
Matching donations to donors and dates, sorting them into the two schemes and a residual pile, and reporting the residual as a finding rather than a gap.
- 04
Building the claim, and the cap that catches people out
Assembling a claim from routed donations against each scheme’s published limits, including the matching rule between them.
- 05
The evidence has to outlive the claim by six years
Assembling and retaining the record that supports each claimed donation, and the design consequences of a six-year retention duty.
- 06
What the gift aid claimer costs
About $2 a month. One Bedrock read per charity is the only line that grows; the queue, the table, the mail and the storage are rounding errors. Plus the three ways the bill could surprise you.
- 07
Engineering reference: the gift aid claimer architecture
Same system, drawn purely for engineers. Service names, region, Lambda inventory, IAM scopes, the schemas and the exact model id.
Frequently asked questions
- What is Gift Aid worth?
- Twenty-five pence for every pound donated. The charity reclaims the basic-rate tax the donor already paid, so a ten pound gift becomes twelve fifty at no cost to the donor.
- Why can’t I claim on every donation?
- Because a claim needs a declaration from that donor that was in force when the donation was made, and the donor has to have paid at least as much tax as every charity will reclaim on their giving that year. No declaration, no claim.
- What is the small donations scheme?
- A separate route for small cash and contactless gifts where chasing a declaration is not realistic. It pays the same twenty-five per cent, needs no declaration, and is capped — including a cap tied to how much ordinary Gift Aid you claimed.
- What happens if a claim turns out to be wrong?
- HMRC takes it back, with interest, and can look at the four years before it. That is why the evidence file is the deliverable rather than the claim.
- What does it cost to run?
- A couple of dollars a month. See part six.