Gift Aid confirmation letter FAQs 

We can only claim Gift Aid if we have a valid Gift Aid declaration made by the donor. 

If we find that a declaration is invalid or missing, in some instances His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) allow us to write to donors to remedy this so we can continue to claim Gift Aid. 

Your confirmation letter or email contains a Gift Aid Statement which confirms the original agreement to Gift Aid donations to Surrey Wildlife Trust. If we cannot repair the declaration by sending you this statement, we will have to stop claiming Gift Aid and possibly repay HMRC any Gift Aid we have claimed under that declaration. 

By sending out the letter to you, it’s also an opportunity to make sure all the details we hold are still valid, including your name, home address and Gift Aid eligibility. Donors only need to contact us if their details have changed. 

Following a recent review of our records, we have discovered that some of the declarations we hold are missing or invalid. A declaration may be invalid because the incorrect wording was used by us on the declaration, a date may be missing from the declaration or the address we hold for you currently does not match the address on your declaration. By sending out confirmation letters we give donors an opportunity to review their declaration and advise us of any changes to their details. Donors only need to contact us if their details have changed. 

If we don’t hear from a donor within 30 days of the date of the letter, under HMRC rules we can consider the declaration to be confirmed and we can continue to claim Gift Aid under that declaration. 

According to our records you have previously signed a Gift Aid form for Surrey Wildlife Trust. We are contacting donors who completed a Gift Aid declaration that we have subsequently discovered to be invalid or missing. Your letter will explain the problem with your declaration. 

We are required by HMRC to keep a valid copy of your declaration and to keep an accurate record of your details. Sending this letter/email to you helps us ensure the details we hold for you are still valid. If you are happy that the contact details and the Gift Aid declaration (which is an HMRC Gift Aid Statement) contained in your letter/email are still valid, you don’t need to do anything – we will retain a copy of the mailing as confirmation of your declaration’s validity. However, if any details in the mailing are incorrect, please let us know using the contact details at the end of this page.

We make an electronic record of all Gift Aid declarations, but we also need to retain the original declaration, which you as the donor would have completed. Unfortunately, some original declarations do go missing, and if we have found this to be the case we are contacting donors for whom we have an electronic record, but are missing the supporting original declaration, to confirm their intention to add Gift Aid to their donations and validate the tax we have received in their name. 

No. Your Gift Aid confirmation letter will let you know why we are sending it to you. 

There is a section in the letter that says ‘You only need to contact us if any of the details have changed or are incorrect’. The following paragraph contains the Gift Aid statement, stating the date when you made the declaration and the period the declaration covers.  

If the contact information and information in the Gift Aid statement are correct, then you don’t need to do anything. If any of the details are wrong, then please get in touch with us within 30 days of the date of the letter using the contact information at the end of this page. You can of course get in touch at any time to let us know of changes to your name or address or changes which affect your eligibility to Gift Aid your donations.

We ask you to please let us know within 30 days if there are any changes we need to make to the way we claim Gift Aid on your donations. If we don’t hear from you, we will take this as your confirmation that we can continue to claim Gift Aid. 

Under General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rules, we are allowed to contact you about your Gift Aid declaration because we have a legitimate interest in ensuring we are following HMRC rules about claiming Gift Aid.  

Under HMRC rules we have a liability period of the current financial year plus the previous four years. This means that if you made any donations within this time period on which we claimed Gift Aid we need to ensure that we had a valid declaration covering those donations, otherwise we may be liable to repay the Gift Aid that we claimed. 

If you had a covenant in existence on 5 April 2000 and have not subsequently made a Gift Aid declaration, you can continue to make the payments due under that deed of covenant until it expires without having to complete a Gift Aid declaration. However, due to the age of such covenants, we would advise and welcome that you re-confirm your agreement to the scheme by completing a new Gift Aid declaration. 

If you make additional gifts or change the value of your gift under the original covenant, you must complete a new Gift Aid declaration to cover those gifts if you want us to be able to recover the tax on them. You can find our online Gift Aid declaration form here. 

If you are a UK taxpayer and eligible for Gift Aid, we can claim an extra 25% from HMRC to make your donation go even further. The liability period is the current tax year plus the previous four tax years.  

This means that, if any of your donations were made within this time period and on which we have claimed Gift Aid, we need to ensure that we had a valid declaration covering those donations or repay HMRC for any gift aid claimed. 

If you have any questions on this, please contact us using the details at the end of this page. 

Under HMRC rules we have a liability period of the current financial year plus the previous four years. This means that, if you made any donations within this time period on which we claimed Gift Aid, we need to ensure that we had a valid declaration covering those donations, otherwise we be liable to repay the Gift Aid that we claimed. This is not a request to start Gift Aid again. 

We are only contacting donors for whom our records show they have completed a Gift Aid declaration. Please get in touch with the Membership team, using the details at the end of this page.