Church Admin Plugin

Gift Aid forms

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The Gift Aid Forms screen generates a batch of pre-filled, print-ready PDF Gift Aid declaration forms — one per person — using names and addresses from your directory. Each donor signs and returns their form to authorise your church to reclaim Gift Aid on their donations. This is a UK-only feature for registered charities.

Go to Church Admin → Giving → Gift Aid forms.

What is Gift Aid?

Gift Aid is a UK government scheme that allows registered charities to reclaim the basic rate tax a donor has already paid on their donation. For every £1 donated by a UK taxpayer, the charity can reclaim 25p from HMRC — at no cost to the donor. Higher rate and additional rate taxpayers can also claim additional relief through their Self Assessment tax return.

To claim Gift Aid, your church must hold a signed Gift Aid declaration from each donor confirming they are a UK taxpayer. The forms generated by this screen are HMRC-compliant declarations that satisfy this requirement.

Before you generate forms

  • Your church must be a registered UK charity — you need your charity name and registered charity number to complete the forms
  • Donors must have an address stored in the directory — HMRC requires the donor’s home address on the declaration to confirm they are a UK taxpayer. Anyone without an address in the directory is skipped automatically when generating the PDF.

Generating the forms

  1. Filter who to include — use the directory filter at the top of the screen to select the group of people you want to generate forms for. You might generate forms for all Members, or for everyone who gives regularly.
  2. Enter your charity name — exactly as it appears on the Charity Commission register
  3. Enter your charity number — your registered charity number from the Charity Commission
  4. Start date — leave blank to use the statutory default of the past four years, which is the standard HMRC period for backdating Gift Aid claims. Set a specific date if you only want to claim Gift Aid from a particular point — for example if a donor switched to a different fund on a known date.
  5. Click Save — a PDF is generated with one declaration page per person and a download link appears on screen.

What the form contains

Each generated form is a full HMRC-compliant Gift Aid declaration containing:

  • The official Gift Aid logo
  • The standard HMRC declaration wording — covering future donations and up to four years of past donations
  • Your charity name and registered number
  • The donor’s pre-filled name and address from the directory
  • Signature and date lines for the donor to complete
  • The standard HMRC wording reminding donors to notify the charity if they change their name or address, cancel the declaration, or no longer pay sufficient tax
  • A note about higher and additional rate taxpayers claiming further relief through Self Assessment

After donors have signed

Collect the signed forms and store them securely — HMRC may ask to see declarations during a compliance check. You should keep declarations for at least two years after the end of the tax year to which they relate, or for as long as you are claiming Gift Aid on the donor’s gifts.

Once a signed declaration is held for a donor, record their Gift Aid status against their giving records and use the Gift Aid report CSV to generate your HMRC claim. See Gift Aid report CSV.

Fillable PDF alternative

If you need a fillable PDF that donors can complete and save on their own device rather than printing and signing, visit giftaidform.uk which provides this as a separate service.

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