Claiming Gift Aid

This page pulls together resources to help parishes claim Gift Aid from HMRC using one of three new processes that have been introduced in 2013:

  • The ChR1 paper form
  • Online Claims
  • Claiming using commercial software

Gift Aid claims now require more information about the donor than previously, so you will need to check your records, and if you have more recent information regarding the donor’s name, address and postcode, then you should update this.

How to claim using the paper ChR1 form:

We have produced a short two page guide to claiming using the paper ChR1 form . It is important that this is used in conjunction with the form and its accompanying notes.

How to claim online:

We offer a guide to claiming online which includes a number of screenshots and walks you through the process.  HMRC have produced guidance on completing the donations schedule. There is lots more guidance on HMRC’s website – we suggest you start here.

To begin your claim visit https://www.gov.uk/claim-gift-aid.

We also offer a Gift Aid datasheet which may be helpful in preparing data in Excel – it performs some simple verification that data is complete and correct, and has the limitations on field length that HMRC require. You can’t upload this spreadsheet to HMRC, but you can ‘cut and paste’ into the LibreOffice spreadsheet required by HMRC. You will need to use the “Paste Special” option and paste “Numbers” and not “Formulas” so that the data is entered into HMRC’s spreadsheet in the right format.

 If you try it, we’d be grateful for some feedback using the Contact Us page.

Claiming using Commercial Software:

There are several options for commercial software. The ones used most frequently by parishes are Donations Co-ordinator from Data Developments and Fund Filer.  If you register with the Church of England’s Parish Buying site, you can obtain a discount code which will enable you to save over £30 on purchasing Donations Coordinator.
You will still need to register with the Government Gateway, but once you have obtained registration details, you will be able to key this into your software which will then claim on your behalf. You may find the guidance for Claiming Online helpful with the registration process.

Associated Guidance:

  • Each of the above allow for small Gift Aided donations of £20 or less (£30 or less from April 2019) to be aggregated together and claimed on a single line of the form.  See  Making Aggregated Claims for further guidance on this.