The Small Charitable Donations and Childcare Payments Bill 2016-17 has had its first reading in the House of Commons. It makes provision about the payment schemes established by the Small Charitable Donations Act 2012 and the Childcare Payments Act 2014.

In short, the Bill puts in place the changes announced in the Government’s response to its most recent consultation reviewing the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme (GASDS). These should ensure that the GASDS operates effectively and flexibly for the greatest number of charities (for the purposes of CTG, only the first half of this Bill is of relevance). These changes:

• completely remove the two-year eligibility rule and the Gift Aid history requirement (two-in-four rule) to allow more smaller and newer charities to benefit sooner
• ensure the scheme continues to reflect the realities of modern fundraising by allowing contactless donations to be eligible
• provide that charities – or a group of charities – may claim under the main allowance or under the community buildings allowance, but not both (which means that where there are connected charities it will no longer be possible for one of them to claim under the main allowance and another to claim under the community buildings provisions)
• will provide that a charity with more than one community building may claim top-up payments in respect of small donations of more than £8,000 in a tax year, provided that all of them qualify as part of a community building amount in accordance with s 6 of the 2012 Act
• reform the community buildings rules to allow donations received outside of the community building but within the same local authority area to qualify – allowing more charities to benefit from the important work they carry out in their local communities

The second reading of the Bill is expected on 11 October 2016.

For more information on the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme, click here.