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Hi Gazza
Gift aid assumes that any donations received are from net income i.e. 80% of the gross taxable income of the doner, so for every £1 received 25p can be reclaimed.
However, there are really strict rules about when you can claim this back. Records have to be kept for the doner - their name, address and the date of the donation. They have to sign a valid giftaid declaration form -which if the wrong wording is used makes it void. (This form only has to be done the first time the doner gives money, not for every donation). The doner must pay tax which is at least as much as the gift aid being claimed (whether this be on income, capital gains, pension, savings income etc not just paye) - they state this on the gift aid form by ticking a box.
Some charities don't claim the gift aid because they don't have sufficient systems to record all the above information accurately and for the amounts they would receive the admin burden is too much. However, it sounds as though your club could claim back significant amounts which would make it worthwhile.
There is a time limit on submitting the claims - you can go back 4 years (of your accounting period) and you can claim retrospectively if you have a valid gift aid declaration.
HMRC moved over to electronic submissions a few years ago which makes the forms easier to complete and now pay quicker if submitted that way - before that they could take ages (I waited over 6 months for 1 claim to arrive in my bank account).
It is definately something that you need to have experience of because there are hefty penalties for getting it wrong. HMRC carry out giftaid inspections and if they find anything wrong they work out a % of errors and extrapolate that to come up with a penalty.
Hope this helps
Jacqui
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