Can we claim more under GASDS because we use several buildings?

England and Wales: This page sets out the position in full. Scotland: the same position, with no difference in principle — GASDS is UK-wide, and only the meaning of “Local Authority area” is defined separately, by reference to a council under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994. Northern Ireland: the same position again, with “Local Authority area” defined by reference to a district council under the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972.

Can we claim the standard cap plus a cap for each building?

No. Since 6 April 2017 a charity claims either the standard cap or on the GASDS community buildings basis, never both. The rules apply across the UK, and it is the trustees or the treasurer who settle the basis each year.

This is the single biggest correction in this hub, and the reason to open with it rather than with today’s rule. Most people arrive already believing the version that stopped being true in 2017. The page assumes you know how the standard cap and the matching rule work; setting up GASDS and applying the matching rule covers both.

Until 6 April 2017, a charity with community buildings could claim the standard annual cap. It could also claim an additional cap for every qualifying building it operated from. That version still sits in the superseded pre-2017 edition of HMRC’s guidance. It remains published on the National Archives, and is still cited by advisers and templates that have not caught up.

Since 6 April 2017, HMRC states the current rule in terms that leave no room for the old reading:

“Charities can no longer claim a top-up payment on donations of up to £8,000 per charity plus an additional £8,000 of small donations for each community building they operate from.” — HMRC, Charities detailed guidance notes, Chapter 8.5

It is now either the standard cap, or the community buildings basis — never both. A charity that budgets on the old cumulative basis will over-claim. The Act requires the excess to be repaid, with a penalty route available on top — the section on over-claiming covers both.

Does one community building increase the GASDS cap?

No. A charity with one community building, or none, gains nothing from the community buildings rules at all. This surprises almost everyone who has just qualified a building. The mechanism, not just the outcome, explains why.

The community buildings provisions only apply to a charity that runs charitable activities in more than one community building in a tax year. Fall below two buildings and you sit outside those provisions entirely. You take the plain annual cap on donations collected anywhere in the UK, exactly as if the building did not exist for GASDS purposes.

Two further ways a claim on this basis can collapse are worth checking before you rely on it. First, the Act can treat two or more buildings as a single building. It does so where the same freehold or leasehold interest covers them and they sit on the same or adjoining land. An apparent two-building claim can turn out to be one.

The interest that counts is the one the charity holds, settled when it took on its premises.

Second, qualifying a building at all is harder than the headline occasions test suggests. In a qualifying community building, the charity carries out a charitable activity with a group of its beneficiaries. It must do so often enough to meet the test in s.7(1). The statute is specific, so it is worth quoting rather than paraphrasing:

“the charity carries out a charitable activity with a group of people in the community building, at least 10 of whom are in the class of people for whose benefit the charitable activity is being carried out” … on “6 or more occasions in the tax year” — Small Charitable Donations Act 2012, s.7(1)

The group has to be genuine beneficiaries — staff and volunteers do not automatically count. Fundraising is not a charitable activity for this test at all. HMRC’s own worked example fails a bereavement counselling group that met quarterly and also held a summer fete and a Christmas party. Only the genuinely charitable meetings count towards the six; the two fundraising events do not.

When must the claiming basis be chosen?

The comparison has to be worked out, and the choice made, before the first GASDS claim of the tax year is submitted. Deciding the claiming basis is not something you can leave until you see how the year has gone. Once that claim goes in, the choice is effectively locked. Amendment is possible afterwards, but it carries its own separate time limit, and HMRC’s own guidance is clear that switching basis later is difficult.

Run the comparison every year rather than assuming last year’s answer still holds. Geography matters as much as building count, because donations are allocated to buildings like this:

• Donations collected inside a community building can only be allocated to that building.
• Donations collected elsewhere in the same Local Authority area can be allocated across buildings freely.
• A single donation cannot count towards more than one building.
• An excess collected in one area cannot be moved to a building in a different one.

A charity operating across two Local Authority areas can lose real money to that boundary if it is not modelled before the claim, not after.

Connected charities and the shared GASDS cap

Two charities are connected for GASDS only where both tests are met: common control, and the same or very similar purposes. Charities under common control with genuinely different purposes are not connected. HMRC’s own example is a school, a zoo and a museum, all providing education for children — not connected, because their activities differ enough. A primary school and a nursery, both providing education, are.

Where charities are connected and none of them has a community building, they share a single £8,000 cap between the whole group.

The pooling only runs one way, though. The small donations pool across the group, so one member can claim on the group’s total. Gift Aid for matching purposes does not pool: the claiming charity has to match the pooled small donations against its own Gift Aid alone. That makes nominating the group member with the largest Gift Aid claim materially better than nominating any other.

Where any member of the group does have a community building, the position for the others is harsher than “sharing a cap” suggests. A connected charity that runs no charitable activities in a community building of its own gets nil, not the standard cap. The exception is a formal election by the group to share a single cap instead. The election:

• has to be in writing, signed by every connected charity’s authorised official
• becomes irreversible once HMRC has received all of them
• lasts one tax year only and must be renewed
• must be made within 2 years after the end of the tax year
• must also be made within 12 months after any connected charity’s first GASDS claim for that year, if that is earlier

With the basis settled, the hub turns to shops. Setting up retail Gift Aid applies only to a charity that sells donated goods.

Common mistake: believing you get the standard allowance plus an allowance per building

That was the rule before April 2017, and the superseded guidance describing it is still findable and still gets cited. It is now either/or. A charity budgeting on the old cumulative basis will over-claim and have to repay the excess, with a penalty possible on top.

Common mistake: expecting an uplift from having one qualifying building

Having a building that qualifies feels as though it must be worth something. A charity with one, or zero, community buildings sits entirely outside the community buildings provisions and takes the plain standard cap. Only at two or more buildings can the per-building basis exceed it. The effort spent qualifying a single building produces nothing under these rules.

Common mistake: assuming any regular use of the building qualifies it

The occasions test sounds simple to meet, and it usually is not. The group has to include enough genuine beneficiaries of the charitable activity — not staff or volunteers — and the activity cannot be primarily for fundraising. HMRC’s own example fails a group that met the right number of times but included fundraising events among them.

Worked example

Saltmarsh Trust runs services from three separate buildings. Two of them are in the same Local Authority area. The third is across the boundary, in a different one.

Donations exceeding the per-building figure collected in one area cannot be moved to the building in the other area. HMRC’s own worked example loses exactly that excess, so Saltmarsh’s trustees model this before choosing a basis, not after.

Because Saltmarsh has qualifying buildings across two areas, the comparison has to be run each year. The community buildings basis may beat the standard £8,000 cap in a year when collections are strong at all its sites. It may lose to it in a quieter year. The decision is made, and recorded, before the first claim of the tax year goes in.