# charity.gift-aid
The Gift Aid a UK charity (or CASC) can reclaim from HMRC on one donation, or
on a total of donations made in the same tax year.
A Gift Aid donation is treated as given after the donor has paid basic rate
tax on it (Income Tax Act 2007 s414(2)(a)), so the charity reclaims the tax
on the grossed up amount: `donation x rate / (100% - rate)`. At 20% that is
25p for every £1, and a £100 donation is worth £125 to the charity.
## Decisions
- **Always the UK basic rate.** Since 6 April 2018 s414 and s415 refer to "the
basic rate", not the Scottish or Welsh basic rate, so a Scottish taxpayer's
gift is grossed up at the same 20% as anyone else's. Any difference between
a devolved basic rate and the UK one is settled with the donor through
s414A, never through the charity's claim.
- **Rounded down to the penny.** The tax treated as deducted is exact; a claim
may not exceed it, so a fraction of a penny is dropped. £10.01 gives
250.25p, claimed as 250p. Claim on a total rather than summing per-gift
results if you want the pennies back (charity.reclaim-batch does).
- **The date is the date of the gift**, which decides the tax year and so the
basic rate: 22% in 2007-08 (22/78, about 28.2p per £1), 20% from 6 April 2008.
- It does not check eligibility (declaration, benefits): see
charity.gift-aid-eligibility.
- The transitional relief of 3p per £1 paid to charities for 2008-09 to
2010-11 (Finance Act 2008 s53) was a separate government payment, not Gift
Aid, and is not included.
The rates start at 6 April 2007, when ITA 2007 took over the rules; an
earlier date is an error rather than a guess. A build installed with
`history=current` refuses dates before the rate it carries and says why.
## Sources
- Income Tax Act 2007 ss414-415, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2007/3/part/8/chapter/2
(s414(2)(a) "income tax at the basic rate"; s415 grossed up "by reference
to the basic rate for the tax year in which the gift is made").
- Finance Act 2007 s1 (basic rate 22% for 2007-08), https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2007/11/section/1
- Finance Act 2008 s1 (basic rate 20% for 2008-09), https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2008/9/section/1
- GOV.UK, "Income Tax rates and Personal Allowances" (basic rate 20% for
2026-27), https://www.gov.uk/income-tax-rates
- GOV.UK, "Claim top-up payments for the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme"
("If the basic rate of Income Tax is 20% ... a donor gives £30, you can
claim ... £7.50"), https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claiming-a-top-up-payment-on-small-charitable-donations
1.0.1 fixes Python accepting a trailing newline or non-ASCII digits in onDate; adds tests.