# charity.gift-aid-eligibility
Whether one donation qualifies for Gift Aid, and every reason it does not.
It checks the three things a charity can check at the point of a gift:
1. **A Gift Aid declaration** covers the gift (ITA 2007 s416(1)(b)).
2. **The donor pays enough tax.** A donor who pays less income tax and capital
gains tax in the year than their Gift Aid gifts reclaim is liable to pay the
difference (s424). The charity cannot work this out, so it is a flag the
caller supplies, usually from what the donor confirmed on the declaration.
3. **The donor benefit limits** (s418): the benefits the donor, or a person
connected with them, receives because of the gift.
The benefit limits, for gifts on or after 6 April 2019:
| gift | the benefits may be worth up to |
|---|---|
| £100 or less | 25% of the gift |
| more than £100 | £25 plus 5% of the amount over £100 |
| all gifts to this charity in the tax year | £2,500 in total |
Earlier rules are dated data: from 6 April 2007, 25% up to £100, a flat £25 on
gifts up to £1,000 and 5% of the whole gift above that, with a £500 annual
total, which became £2,500 from 6 April 2011. A £500 gift in March 2019 could
carry a £25 benefit; the same gift in April 2019 can carry £45.
## Decisions
- **The comparison is exact.** The statute says a benefit breaches the limit if
it "exceeds" it, and the annual total if it "is more than" £2,500, so a
benefit exactly at a limit qualifies. The limit is compared unrounded: 25%
of £1.01 is 25.25p, so a 25p benefit passes and 26p fails.
`benefitLimit` is reported rounded down to the penny, for display.
- **Every reason is returned**, in a fixed order (`no-declaration`,
`insufficient-tax`, `benefit-over-limit`, `annual-benefits-over-limit`), so
a donor record can be fixed in one pass.
- `priorBenefitsThisYear` is the benefits from this donor's earlier
*qualifying* gifts to this charity in the same tax year (s418(4)); the
caller keeps that running total.
- Out of scope: valuing a benefit, the special cases of ss419-421 (right of
admission to heritage property, publications, and so on), and the other
qualifying conditions of s416 (a payment of money, not repayable, not payroll
giving, not deductible from income).
## Sources
- Income Tax Act 2007 ss416-418 and s424, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2007/3/part/8/chapter/2
- Finance Act 2007 s60 (5% above £1,000 and £500 annual limit, gifts from 6 April 2007), https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2007/11/section/60
- Finance Act 2011 s41 (annual limit £2,500, gifts from 6 April 2011), https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2011/11/section/41
- Finance Act 2019 s40 (£25 plus 5% of the excess, gifts from 6 April 2019), https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/1/section/40
- GOV.UK, "Gift Aid: what donations charities and CASCs can claim on", https://www.gov.uk/guidance/gift-aid-what-donations-charities-and-cascs-can-claim-on
1.0.1 fixes Python accepting a trailing newline or non-ASCII digits in onDate; adds tests.
## Notices
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government
Licence v3.0 (https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/).
Legislation: Crown copyright and database right.
1.0.2 adds its attribution notices (NOTICE). The code and the tests are unchanged.