Gift Aid is a very important income source for charities.

Chiltern Open Air Museum is very grateful to visitors for agreeing to help the Museum by turning their admission payments into a donation. This raises around £10 000 each year for the Museum, which is essential income for the survival of Chiltern Open Air Museum.

Since 2000, charitable visitor attractions have effectively been able to claim Gift Aid on admission fees paid by UK taxpayers. (Strictly speaking, what the visitor pays is not a fee for admission but a donation, in return for which the attraction offers free admission.) This means that the government refunds the tax paid on the donation given, so that for every pound given by a visitor, HM Revenue and Customs adds an extra 28p.

Gift aid is tax relief on money donated to UK charities.

We treat donations as if the donor had already deducted basic rate tax from them.
The charity can then reclaim this tax to increase the value of a donation.

Donors must :

• pay enough UK income tax and/or capital gains tax themselves to cover the amount of tax the charity will reclaim
• give the charity a gift aid declaration, which should include
  - their full name
  - their full home address including postcode
  - the charity’s name
  - details of the donation – saying that it is a gift aid donation
  - confirmation that they have paid UK tax – to cover the tax the charity will reclaim.

A declaration can be made to cover individual donations,a series of donations, can cover donations made during a specified period or to cover all future donations. They can also be backdated for up to 6 years prior to the date of the declaration provided the donation was made since 6 April 2000.

If a customer pays :

• basic rate of tax, they cannot claim further tax relief on the payments
• higher rate of tax, they can claim higher rate relief on the payments by entering the donations in the gift aid box on their self assessment tax return. Customers who receive a form P810 can declare their gift aid payments on it.

Since 6 April 2006, Museums and others can only claim Gift Aid on daily admission tickets if visitors give at least 10% more than the standard admission fee. (Museums will be able to claim Gift Aid on the whole amount, not just the 10%).

These changes only apply to daily admission arrangements. Museums and other attractions will still be able to claim Gift Aid on annual memberships and annual season tickets as before. Visitors may still make general donation to the Museum and Museum projects and claim the full gift aid.