What Gift Aid records do I have to keep, and for how long?

England and Wales: This page sets out the position in full. Scotland: the same position, with no difference in principle — this is UK tax administration, not a devolved matter. Northern Ireland: the same position, with no difference in principle.

How long must a charitable company or trust keep Gift Aid records?

A charitable company and a charitable trust keep Gift Aid records for different periods, counted from different dates. Most published guidance still gets this wrong. The periods are HMRC’s, and they are the same in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The trustees, and whoever runs the Gift Aid database, need the one for their own legal form.

The page assumes the declaration wording is settled. If it is not, design a compliant Gift Aid declaration first. It also assumes donations have their own lines in your chart of accounts.

A charitable company’s retention period is settled and clean. HMRC states it directly:

“A charity run as a charitable company, which most are, must keep tax records (including Gift Aid declarations and records) until 6 years after the end of the accounting period they relate to.”

A charitable trust does not follow the same clock read from a different date. It follows a genuinely different test — the later of two figures, not one fixed figure. HMRC, verbatim:

“Charitable trusts should keep tax records (including Gift Aid declarations and records) until the later of: 6 years after the end of the tax year they relate to; 12 months after the charity makes a Gift Aid repayment claim for that tax year.”

Two things differ, not one. The starting point differs — the end of the accounting period for a company, the end of the tax year for a trust. And the trust test has a second, alternative limb the company test does not.

A further period runs from the date of the claim itself, and it can push the true deadline out beyond the headline figure. Publishing “six years” as a single rule for every charity is wrong for whichever structure it was not written for. Gift Aid records are one line in the charity’s wider record retention schedule, which covers everything else it keeps.

One honest note on sourcing: the trust’s headline figure is HMRC guidance, not a number set out in statute. No provision produces it. Only the second, shorter limb has a clean statutory anchor. Even that runs slightly longer than a flat count. It lands on the next quarter day after the anniversary of the claim, not on the anniversary itself.

Company status carries consequences beyond this clock, too. The money page on your external scrutiny requirement shows how the same status decides which audit regime a charitable company is in. That is quite apart from Companies House’s own exemptions. Read it alongside this page if you are not confident which structure you are dealing with.

How long must an enduring declaration be kept?

An enduring declaration covering ongoing donations is kept for as long as the donations continue, and the time limits run only from the last one. A single declaration can cover a whole stream of future gifts — a standing order, a payroll gift, a recurring card donation. HMRC treats that kind of declaration differently from everything above it:

“All charities will need to keep enduring Gift Aid declarations covering ongoing donations permanently. If the donations stop then the time limits apply from the date of the last donation.”

Read that twice if your filing habit is “shred anything over six years old”. An enduring declaration is not on that clock while the gifts keep coming. The clock only starts running once they stop. It then counts from the last gift the declaration covered — not the first, and not the date the declaration itself was signed.

Evidence that the tax was explained

Besides the declaration, you must keep evidence that the donor’s tax position was explained to them. The page on what a Gift Aid declaration has to say sets out why “I am a UK taxpayer” does not meet HMRC’s requirement. A full explanation of the donor’s tax position is a separate, mandatory element of a valid declaration.

The record-keeping consequence follows directly: keeping the declaration itself is not enough. You also need something that shows the explanation was given. That might be the wording that was live on the donation date, the script a fundraiser read, or the email that was sent. Without that second artefact, the declaration it belongs to may not hold up, however well the form itself was designed.

What is a Gift Aid audit trail?

A Gift Aid audit trail is a record linking each donation to an identifiable donor holding a valid declaration. It also holds acceptable evidence of the tax explanation behind it. HMRC tests the trail when it audits a charity’s Gift Aid, and the trail is more specific than “do the declarations exist”. A warning worth keeping in front of whoever runs your database:

“The transcribing of declarations given by donors into a database will not satisfy the requirements to have an auditable record as such a record does not demonstrate that the donor made the declaration.”

A spreadsheet listing names and dates is not the record. The original declaration — the form, the call log, the sent email — is.

Two narrower cases: an open enquiry and envelope schemes

An open HMRC enquiry and a Gift Aid envelope scheme each change when the retention clock runs:

• An open enquiry. Where HMRC has opened an enquiry into a company’s return, the ordinary clock stops running. The records must then be kept until the enquiry itself is finished, however long that takes.
• An envelope scheme. A Gift Aid envelope scheme runs to a third starting point again. Not the accounting period, not the tax year — the date the donation was included in a claim.

Few charities use envelope schemes, but a charity that does should not assume its records sit on the same clock as everything else.

With the records in place, the next step is to classify your income for Gift Aid eligibility. Not everything the charity receives can carry a claim.

Common mistake: applying the standard retention period to enduring declarations

Six years is the figure everyone half-remembers. It gets applied to everything, including declarations that should be kept permanently while the donations continue. Destroying an enduring declaration on a fixed cycle can invalidate claims on every gift that came after it was thrown away.

Common mistake: keeping the declaration but not the evidence of the tax explanation

The declaration is the obvious document to file. The tax explanation, if it was given separately from the form, leaves nothing behind unless someone deliberately keeps a copy of it. HMRC requires that second artefact as well — without it, the declaration it supports may not be valid.

Worked example

Saltmarsh Trust has a donor who has given by standing order every month for years. Despite its name, Saltmarsh Trust is a charitable company. Its records follow the company clock, not the trust rule — the name on the letterhead is not the legal test.

But the standing-order gift is covered by an enduring declaration. That declaration is not on the company clock at all while the gifts keep arriving. The clock only starts once the standing order stops. It then counts from that last payment, not from the date the declaration was first signed.