Provisions in the Small Charitable Donations Act 2017 are effective from 6 April 2017 (affecting donations received from this point onwards – those collected before this date will be subject to the old rules). The Act changes the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme by:

• completely removing 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
• ensuring the scheme continues to reflect the realities of modern fundraising by allowing contactless donations to be eligible
• providing 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)
• reforming 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.

HMRC’s entry level guidance note and detailed guidance note, as well as specific guidance on claiming a top-up payment on small charitable donations have also been updated, following consultation with CTG and other sector bodies.

Churches may also find it useful to refer to this helpful guidance note by the Church of England.