ABOUT THE RECENT HMRC RULES

In April 2016, HMRC issued new rules about partnerships and Gift Aid

When a business partnership makes a donation to a charity or Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC):

  1. It will be necessary for each individual partner to make their own Gift Aid declaration.
  2. Each partner’s Gift Aid declaration must contain their name and full home address and should be given to the charity or CASC.
The amount of each partner’s share of the whole donation also needs to be specified in their declaration or in any supporting correspondence given to a charity or CASC.

HMRC changes to partnership and Gift Aid

To read more about these changes, please refer to the Government's website.

Find out more

WHAT CHANGES HAVE WE MADE?

Following the new HMRC regulations which came into effect on 6 April 2016, we’ve implemented new administrative, technical and process changes in order to comply. When we claim Gift Aid on your partnership’s behalf, it makes your donation tax-effective and increases the amount charities receive. We are committed to working with you to ensure that the charities you support continue to benefit from tax-effective donations.

Impact of technical and process changes - new partnership CAF Company Account number

As part of the technical and process changes we have made, we will need to close your existing partnership CAF Company Account and open up a new non-tax effective account (CAF Company Account for LLPs). This will help CAF manage Gift Aid appropriately.

Once we have received your list of participating partners, we will create the new account and start to close the old account. At this stage, please expect to receive a new account number and voucher book for your new CAF Company Account for LLPs.

You will not need to manage any transfer of existing contacts, standing orders or regular commitments; we will do this for you.

We will not close your old account until any outstanding transactions have been completed.

YOUR NEXT STEPS

1. Send us a list of all participating partners

  • We require you to provide the name and home address of each equity partner who will be participating, and subsequently completing an individual partner Gift Aid declaration. 
  • Please list the relevant individuals in the List of participating partners CSV template and return it to CAF. Guidance notes are included within the template.
We need the completed list to help us set up new internal processes to make claiming Gift Aid on your behalf as efficient as possible for you.

2. Send us your individual partner Gift Aid declaration forms

  • Please complete an Individual partner Gift Aid declaration for each participating equity partner in your organisation to enable us to claim Gift Aid on their proportion of your partnership’s charitable donation.
The PDF form should be completed for as many participating partners as required and returned to CAF.

WHEN SHOULD YOU SUBMIT THE INDIVIDUAL PARTNER GIFT AID DECLARATION FORMS?

This will depend on how your partnership chooses to manage the administration required. To make your administration easier, we recommend you collate completed Gift Aid declaration forms and send them in one or several batches. Please submit your batch of completed Gift Aid declaration forms in conjunction with a completed list of participating equity partners as soon as possible.  If you need further advice on timings, please contact us on 03000 123 630 or email partnership@cafonline.org.

Important information - Donation allocation breakdown

Each time a donation is made into your CAF Company Account for partnerships, we will require a breakdown of the amount of each partner’s share of the whole donation.

If it is not possible for your organisation to provide the donation allocation breakdown each time a donation is made, you may prefer to provide it at the end of your financial year. In this case, we will be able to continue receiving donations into your CAF Company Account for LLPs and disburse funds to your chosen charities. However we will only be able to claim Gift Aid from HMRC on the donations once your breakdown has been received.

Once you have returned your list of participating partners, we will create a report for your organisation to include your partners’ share of the subsequent donation(s) your partnership makes.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

  • When did the new changes come into effect?
    The new HMRC rules on partnership Gift Aid declarations came into effect on 6 April 2016.
  • What do the new rules mean for us as a partnership?
    As of 6 April 2016, when a business partnership makes a donation to a charity or CASC (community amateur sports club), a separate Gift Aid declaration from each equity partner is required. Future new partners will need to sign a Gift Aid declaration when they join the partnership if further donations are made by the partnership to the CAF Company Account.

    The amount of each partner’s share of the whole donation will also need to be specified in their individual Gift Aid declaration or in any supporting correspondence given to a charity or CASC.
  • Why was the process for partnership donations changed by HMRC?
    HMRC have provided the following rationale for change:

    These changes respond to the recommendations from the National Audit Office review of how HMRC monitors tax reliefs on charitable donations and addresses tax avoidance, fraud and error relating to these reliefs. HMRC has also received legal advice that guidance which permitted a nominated partner to make a Gift Aid declaration on behalf of all the partners in the firm does not accord with the law.
  • What changes has CAF made as a result of the new rules?

    CAF was first to market with the CAF Company Account for LLPs, a new service that allows LLPs to continue to give to the causes they care about tax effectively whilst fulfilling HMRC requirements. For CAF to continue to be able to claim Gift Aid on the donations made by your partnership into your CAF Company Account for LLPs, we will require completed individual Gift Aid declarations for each equity partner who wishes to donate.

    Subsequently, an individual funding account will be created for each partner. This will enable us to track and claim Gift Aid for each partner’s individual share of the whole donation made from your partnership in line with HMRC requirements.

    All of these individual partner funding accounts will be linked to your partnership’s CAF Company Account for LLPs. Any Gift Aid claimed at individual partner level will be transferred to this main account from which you as a partnership can continue to make giving requests and donations to your nominated charities.


The remaining FAQs can be found here.

CAF Give As You Earn

CAF Company Account for LLPs

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RELATED CONTENT

Got a question?

For any questions regarding Partnerships and Gift Aid, please refer to our Partnerships frequently asked questions page.

Answers to FAQs ► 

Gift Aid declaration form

Please send us an Individual partner Gift Aid declaration for each participating equity partner in your organisation.

Access the form ► 

Previous CAF communication

We wrote to you with updates on how HMRC changes to partnership Gift Aid would impact your partnership.

Review letter ►