Gift Aid

If you offer a reduced membership fee for couples, then this is essentially like a family membership - and so you can claim Gift Aid as long as the normal conditions for claiming Gift Aid on membership fees are met. The person who makes the payment must be the person who has given a Gift Aid declaration to the charity. 

If they are paying 2 lots of full price fees – but just one person is making the payment, then the fee that relates to the person making the payment can have gift claimed on it (assuming the normal conditions are met). But the fee relating to the other person could not be claimed  

If the individuals made two sperate payments, you could claim on both (assuming normal conditions are met and they are both UK tax payers)  

Family memberships (e.g. buying membership for whole family a reduced cost) can have Gift Aid claimed on it as long as the normal conditions for claiming Gift Aid on membership fees are met. The person who makes the payment must be the person who has given a Gift Aid declaration to the charity. 

Yes, If someone pays for membership for their child, who is under 18, you could claim Gift Aid on it, providing the normal conditions for claiming Gift Aid on membership fees are met. 

It depends.

You cannot claim Gift Aid if the membership fee is paid by an individual on someone else's behalf, unless they are minors.

If someone pays for membership for their child, who is under 18, you could claim Gift Aid on it, providing the normal conditions for claiming Gift Aid on membership fees are met.

Family memberships (e.g. buying membership for whole family a reduced cost) can have Gift Aid claimed on it as long as the normal conditions for claiming Gift Aid on membership fees are met.

Yes. The rule for Gift Aid on membership subscriptions is the same as the rules for donations. The individuals must not pay less Income Tax and/or Capital Gains Tax than the amount of Gift Aid claimed on all their donations and membership subscriptions (not just the ones made to your charity) in that tax year. Otherwise, they will be liable to, and responsible for, repaying any difference to HMRC.

No. This would not qualify as a membership subscription payment, it is paying a fee to access an event / service. However if entry is by way of donation, you may claim Gift aid on the donation:  

• if it was a free choice to make the donation (meaning there is the option of taking part for free) then you could claim on the full donation.  

• if it was a minimum donation - you can only Gift Aid the amount over and above the minimum requested.  

No - there is too much personal benefit here. You could consider splitting out membership and the residential costs into separate transactions, the first being eligible for gift aid. You would need to document & justify your reasoning behind the relative amounts. 

No. The rules about memberships fees and Gift Aid are about the right to have access to personal use or services/facilities. If some members do have access, then in theory all have the right to access, even if they don’t actually use it. As such you could not claim Gift Aid on anyone’s membership fees.

No. Gift Aid is about donations. There are special rules that allow Gift Aid to be claimed on membership subscriptions, even though they are not donations. These rules do not apply to paying for services. 

So if someone pays a fee to attend a workshop, for example, that fee cannot have Gift Aid claimed on it, as it is a fee for a service, not a donation or a membership fee.

If access to the workshop was on a donation basis – and it was a genuine donation basis – i.e they could attend for free if they chose not to donate – then you could claim Gift Aid on the donation made.

Yes. This rule is about whether the membership fee gives access to personal use of services and facilities. If a member has personal use but pays separately for for the facilities or service – i.e. it is not included in the membership fee - then you can claim Gift Aid on the membership fee.

For example, if members pay a termly hire fee for an instrument belonging to your group, as well as paying their usual group subscription, you can claim on the membership fee as the instrument hire is paid for separately.