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Part 2 of 7 · Gift Aid claimer series ~5 min read

The date on the declaration decides everything

Every part of Gift Aid that goes wrong goes wrong here. Not because declarations are hard to collect, but because a declaration is a statement with a date on it and charities store it as a tick.

Key takeaways

  • Store the effective date, not just the fact of a declaration.
  • A declaration can cover the past, but only if its wording says so.
  • A verbal declaration needs a written confirmation sent to the donor.
  • Cancellation is a date too, and it ends coverage from that date.
  • One donor can have several declarations. Keep them all.

Three ways a declaration arrives

Three routes for a Gift Aid declaration converging on one donor recordThree boxes on the left feed one box on the right. A paper form, signed and dated usually by hand, arrives by scan or photo. A web form is timestamped by the server and arrives directly. A declaration said out loud on the phone or at the door needs written confirmation. All three converge on the Donor record holding donor, effective date and what it covers, which feeds a box labelled Coverage window: from this date until cancelled. A note says the third route is the one people forget has an extra step, because a verbal declaration is only valid once the charity has sent the donor a written record of it.A paper formsigned and dated,usually by handscan or photoA web formtimestamped bythe serverdirectSaid out loudon the phone orat the doorneeds written confirmationDonor recorddonor, effective date,what it coversCoverage windowfrom this date untilcancelledThe third route is the one people forget has an extra step: a verbal declaration is only valid once the charity has sent the donor a written record of it.
Fig 1. Three routes, one record. What comes out is not a flag on a donor; it is a window of time with a beginning.

Why a tick is not enough

A donor record that says gift_aid: true answers the wrong question. The question is not whether this donor has ever signed a declaration; it is whether a declaration was in force on the day of this particular donation. Those are the same thing only for donors who signed before they ever gave, which is a minority.

The failure is quiet and it goes in the expensive direction. A charity that collects declarations at its Christmas appeal and then claims on the whole year has claimed on donations that were not covered, and that is the case HMRC takes back with interest. The opposite mistake — not claiming on covered donations — only costs money.

What a declaration actually says

A declaration read into a dated coverage windowA vertical chain inside an AWS account container, entered from a box on the left labelled Declaration, however it arrived. Identify the donor captures a name and a home address, with a side exit reading incomplete: Ask, because no address means no claim. Read the effective date takes the date signed or the date it names. Read the scope records whether it covers future donations only or the past four years too. Record the confirmation stores the donor's statement that they pay enough tax. Open the window starts coverage from that point. A note says the third step is the one that pays, because a declaration whose wording covers the previous four years turns donations you had written off back into claims.AWS ACCOUNTDeclarationhowever itarrivedIdentify the donorname and a homeaddressAskno address meansno claimincompleteRead the effective datesigned, or the dateit namesRead the scopefuture only, or thepast four years tooRecord the confirmationdonor confirms theypay enough taxOpen the windowcoverage runs fromhereThe third step is the one that pays. A declaration whose wording covers the previous four years turns donations you had written off back into claims.
Fig 2. Five steps and one stop. A declaration without a home address is not a valid declaration, and it is better to find that out on the day than in an audit.
  • App integration
  • Machine learning
  • Management
  • Analytics
  • People

Retrospective declarations are the cheapest money in the system

A declaration can be worded to cover donations already made, going back four years. Most standard forms do exactly this and most charities do not notice, because the donor record has no field for it. Adding one field and re-running the routing over the past four years is, for a lot of charities, the largest single Gift Aid win available to them, and it costs a query.

It is also the one place where the honest answer is the profitable one. The wording either covers the past or it does not, it is written on the form, and reading it is cheaper than guessing in either direction.

The five fields, and why each one is there

  • Donor identity. Name and a home address. HMRC matches on these.
  • Effective date. The day coverage begins. Not the day you filed it.
  • Scope. Future only, or the previous four years as well.
  • Tax confirmation. The donor’s own statement, and when they made it.
  • Cancellation date. Null until it is not. Coverage ends here.

One donor, several declarations

People sign again. They sign at an event having already signed online, or they cancel and later re-start. The record is therefore a list, not a flag, and coverage on any given date is a question you ask the list rather than a column you read.

This costs almost nothing to build and it is the difference between a system that can answer was this donation covered and one that can only answer is this donor signed up. The second question is the one that produces a claim you later have to repay.

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