From 1 April 2010, charities will only be able to claim Gift Aid on the past four years of donations.  Unless charities can ensure that they have reclaimed all Gift Aid due to them within the next 12 months they could start to lose out on Gift Aid due to them.

The period from January to April next year will become crucial. The deadline for claims for donations for 3 years (2004-06) will all fall due within a few weeks of each other as the switch-over to the new system is introduced.

Many charities have been experiencing difficulties in understanding the new Gift Aid and Transitional Relief for their donations, and this has resulted in an increased number of incorrect Gift Aid claims being submitted to HMRC.  The knock on effect of this has been that HMRC have had to extend their turn around period for processing Gift Aid claims while they deal with the backlog caused by these incorrect claims.

The bottom line is, if you want to ensure that you have reclaimed all the tax you are entitled to, do not delay - get those claims in now!