How to Fill Out and Submit a Gift Aid Declaration Form

A Gift Aid declaration form is the short authorisation you sign so a UK charity or Community Amateur Sports Club can reclaim 25p of basic-rate tax on every £1 you donate. To complete it, you give the charity your full name, your home address including postcode, the charity’s name, a description of which donations it covers, a statement that you want them treated as Gift Aid, and confirmation that you have paid or will pay enough Income Tax or Capital Gains Tax in the tax year to cover what all your chosen charities will reclaim. You return the form to the charity itself, not to HMRC, and you can do so on paper, by email, through an online donation page, by text, or verbally over the phone.

What the Form Must Contain

HMRC requires the same core information whether the declaration reaches the charity on a paper slip, through a website checkout, or over the phone.¹ Six items need to be on the form:

Your full name. Use your full legal name rather than initials so HMRC can match the declaration to your tax record.
Your home address with postcode. UK donors can provide the house number or name plus the full postcode as a minimum. Donors living outside the UK must give a full postal address including the country. Channel Islands and Isle of Man residents should leave the postcode off.
The charity’s name. The full registered name is ideal, but a well-known working name or acronym is acceptable if it identifies the organisation beyond doubt.
A description of the donations covered: a single enclosed gift, all future donations, all donations under a specific direct debit, or a broader description. Vague wording can exclude donations the charity later tries to claim on.
A clear statement that you want the donations treated as Gift Aid, worded along the lines of “I want to Gift Aid my donation” or “Please treat all my donations as Gift Aid donations.”
A taxpayer statement confirming that you have paid, or will pay, at least as much Income Tax or Capital Gains Tax in the relevant tax year as the total Gift Aid claimed on all your donations across every charity.

Gift Aid is an individual tax relief. A declaration must not be in a company name or joint names; each person in a couple needs their own separate form.¹ The charity is also required to explain the tax implications to you before the declaration is valid, and most do this by printing a line on the form stating that if you pay less tax than the amount reclaimed on all your Gift Aid donations, you are responsible for paying the difference.²

Getting the Address Right

The address field causes more rejected claims than any other part of the form. HMRC wants your home address, not your workplace or a business PO Box, because that is how it identifies you as a UK taxpayer. Where sponsor forms circulate at work and donors are reluctant to write out a full home address, HMRC will accept the house number or name and the full postcode as the minimum.¹ If you move, tell the charity; otherwise its claims on donations made after the move can be rejected.

Single-Donation or Ongoing Declaration

Most charities offer two versions. The single-donation form covers one specific gift and expires immediately afterwards. The ongoing form covers everything you donate to that charity from the date of signing, and, if the wording on the form says so, can also reach back four tax years to sweep in earlier eligible gifts.¹

If you give regularly by direct debit or make occasional gifts to the same charity, the ongoing version is the practical choice. One form covers past, present, and future gifts without needing to sign again. Read the description carefully. Wording like “all donations I make from this date until further notice” covers future gifts indefinitely; wording that adds “all donations I have made for the 4 years prior to this tax year” also brings in earlier ones. If the description doesn’t match the donations the charity later claims on, those claims won’t qualify.

You cannot amend a declaration once it’s in place. To change which donations are covered, cancel the existing form and sign a new one with the updated description.

Payments You Shouldn’t Include

Only genuine gifts qualify. If you receive something of real value in return, the payment is a purchase, and Gift Aid does not apply. The declaration should not be used to cover:

Raffle or lottery tickets, since you’re buying the right to enter a draw.
Admission to events such as concerts, jumble sales, or charity dinners.
Items bought at a charity auction. In limited cases, the amount paid above the item’s retail price can count as a donation, but only if the item was separately available at a stated price and both sides document the arrangement.

Membership subscriptions can qualify only if the benefits attached to membership stay within HMRC’s limits: no more than 25% of the first £100 of the subscription, plus 5% of anything above £100, capped at £2,500 of benefit value in total. Cross those thresholds and the whole subscription fails, not just the excess.³

Getting the Form Back to the Charity

The completed declaration goes to the charity, not to HMRC. Most charities take it by post, through their website, or as part of an online donation checkout. Some accept declarations over the phone. When a charity takes an oral declaration, it must send you a written record of what you agreed to, and you then have 30 days to cancel if the record is wrong. A cancellation within that window is fully retrospective, treated as if the declaration never existed.¹

Once the charity has the form, your part is done. The charity keeps the declaration on file for six years after the most recent donation it claimed Gift Aid on, so HMRC can audit the claim years later.²

The Tax Promise You’re Making

The taxpayer statement isn’t a snapshot of the day you signed. For as long as an ongoing declaration remains active, you are confirming each tax year that your Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax bill covers the total Gift Aid being reclaimed across every charity you support. If your income falls, you retire, or your tax bill drops below that total, you personally owe HMRC the difference. The charity keeps what it received; there is no extra penalty beyond paying the shortfall, but the bill can be a surprise if you have ongoing declarations with several charities.¹

Most problems arise from ongoing declarations signed during working years and forgotten in retirement, when taxable income can drop below the threshold. Cancel the declaration before the charity submits its next claim if you’re no longer paying enough tax to cover it.

Cancelling or Updating a Declaration

You can cancel at any time by contacting the charity in any convenient way, whether by phone, email, or letter. Cancellation takes effect from the date you notify the charity, or a later date you specify. Donations the charity received before then still qualify; only future ones stop being eligible.¹ If your circumstances improve later, you can sign a fresh declaration.

Beyond tax changes, tell the charity if you change your name or move house. The declaration on file must reflect your current home address for the charity’s claims to hold up under audit, and that responsibility sits with you.

Higher-Rate and Scottish Taxpayers

The form itself is the same, but if you pay tax above the basic rate you can claim personal relief on top of the charity’s 25% uplift. The charity reclaims only at the basic rate of 20%, and the difference between that and the rate you actually paid comes back to you. A 40% taxpayer donating £100 can claim back a further £25, reducing the personal cost of a £125 gift to £75.⁴

There are two ways to claim it:

Through Self Assessment. Enter your Gift Aid donations in the relevant section of your tax return and HMRC works out the extra relief.
Through your tax code. If you don’t file a Self Assessment return, contact HMRC and ask for your PAYE code to be adjusted. Claims of £5,000 or less can be made by phone; anything above £5,000 must be in writing. Have your donation amounts ready, and for any single donation of £10,000 or more, HMRC will also ask for the date and the charity’s name.

Scottish taxpayers on the intermediate, higher, or top rate of Scottish income tax use the same two routes to claim the difference between their Scottish rate and the basic rate already reclaimed by the charity.¹ Basic-rate taxpayers have nothing further to do once the form is with the charity.⁴

1
GOV.UK. Chapter 3: Gift Aid
2
GOV.UK. Claiming Gift Aid as a Charity or CASC – Gift Aid Declarations
3
Charity Tax Group. Raffles and Auctions – Gift Aid
4
GOV.UK. Tax Relief When You Donate to a Charity