The Gift Aid scheme is available to all UK taxpayers. The charity or Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASC) concerned can take your donation and, providing all the qualifying conditions are met, reclaim the basic rate tax. This increases the value of your donation by 25p for every pound donated.

If you are a higher rate or additional rate taxpayer, you are eligible to claim additional tax relief on the difference between the basic rate and your highest rate of tax.

For example:

If you donated £5,000 to charity, the total value of the donation to the charity is £6,250. You can claim back additional tax of:

• £1,250 if you pay tax at the higher rate of 40% (£6,250 × 20%),
• £1,562.50 if you pay tax at the additional rate of 45% (£6,250 × 25%).

If you are a higher rate or additional rate taxpayer you also have the option to carry back your charitable donations made in the current tax year, to the previous tax year.

A request to carry back the donation must be made before or at the same time as your previous year’s Self-Assessment return is completed.

This means that if you made a gift to charity in the current 2021-22 tax year that ends on 5 April 2022, you can accelerate repayment of any tax associated with your charitable giving. This can be a useful strategy to maximise tax relief if you will not pay higher rate tax in the current tax year but did in the previous tax year. This should be done as part of the Self-Assessment tax return for 2020-21 which must be submitted by 31 January 2022.

You can only claim if your donations qualify for gift aid. This means that your donations for both tax years together must not be more than 4 times what you paid in tax in the previous year. If you do not complete a tax return you need to use a P810 form to make a claim.