How do I get charity tax reliefs and Gift Aid?

England and Wales: This page sets out the position in full. Scotland: the same position, with no difference in principle — HMRC recognition is a UK-wide route, separate from OSCR registration. Northern Ireland: the same position again, and it matters more here than elsewhere, because Northern Ireland’s own registration is staged, and a charity required to register with CCNI must do so before it applies to HMRC.

Charity registration and HMRC recognition: two applications

Charity registration and HMRC recognition are decided by different bodies, each with its own test. Neither tells the other. Founders who want to register for Gift Aid in England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland need both.

Registering with the Commission, OSCR or CCNI proves your charity exists and is regulated. It says nothing to HMRC about who should be trusted with the tax reliefs that come with charitable status. You will usually reach this page after the step to show your charity status on documents, but HMRC recognition does not depend on it.

If you have to register, the two run in order, not in parallel. HMRC will not look at your application until the regulator has registered you. Finishing registration does not start the application to HMRC for charity recognition for you.

A body that is excepted or exempt from registration may apply to HMRC direct. So may a body the regulator has refused.

Why the smallest charities need this route the most

The law is not settled for charities below the threshold for compulsory registration. They may or may not have a right to register with the Commission by choice. The provision reads, on its face, as if such a charity is entitled to be registered if it asks. But the Commission’s own published practice is to consider a voluntary application only in exceptional circumstances.

One example is a charity offered large funds that need a registered charity number before they can be paid. This page does not settle that clash between the wording and the practice. Nor does it tell a small charity that it has a right to be registered. Instead, plan around the Commission’s practice.

That is the gap HMRC recognition fills. It does not depend on Commission registration at all.

Some small charities cannot get onto the Commission’s register. They are below the threshold, and the Commission will not accept a voluntary application from them. Such a charity can still apply to HMRC directly. It can then get formal charitable status for tax purposes. For the smallest charities, that is often what they needed, not the register entry itself.

The fit and proper persons test

HMRC’s own test is a “management condition”. The people with general control and management of the charity have to be fit and proper persons. That means the trustees and anyone else who runs the charity or applies its assets, not the trustees alone.

The fit and proper persons test asks whether each of them makes sure, or is likely to make sure, that charity funds and tax reliefs are used only for charitable purposes. The usual route is a personal declaration, which the charity keeps on file and shows to HMRC only if asked. The step to complete the fit and proper persons declarations covers who signs and what happens if someone does not meet the test.

The test has no offence of its own. Anyone who gave false information to get charitable tax status would fall under the ordinary law on fraud instead.

One more UK-wide change is worth flagging. Non-UK charitable bodies can no longer apply for this recognition at all. That route closed some years ago.

Bodies that had claimed charity status before the route closed had transitional relief. But that window has since passed.

Claiming Gift Aid once you are recognised

Everything about claiming Gift Aid is covered in full in the tax hub, not here. Start with how Gift Aid works. The steps from there, beginning with how to make your first Gift Aid claim, cover the declaration your donors sign, the claims process, the record-keeping and the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme. The same hub explains how to accept gifts of shares or property tax-efficiently.

This page’s job is narrower. It tells you that the HMRC application exists. It also makes clear that this is separate from all you have done with the regulator so far. With the HMRC application under way, the next step is to put your first policies in place.

Common mistake: assuming charity registration gives you Gift Aid automatically

Both processes are loosely called “registering as a charity”. Both involve dealing with government, so they blur together. They are separate applications to separate bodies, with their own tests. A charity can sit on the regulator’s register for months without being able to claim Gift Aid. This happens because nobody has yet applied to HMRC.

Worked example

Wrenfield Village Hall’s income sits close to the charity registration threshold. That is the profile this site uses for it everywhere it appears. That puts its position with the Commission in doubt.

Rather than wait on that, its trustees apply to HMRC for recognition directly. HMRC decides on its own test, whatever happens with the Commission. Wrenfield gets formal charitable status for tax purposes either way.