The Gift Aid Small Donation Scheme (GASDS), introduced in 2013, is intended for occasions where donors don't have time to stop and the provide details required for a gift aid declaration - such as putting money into a charity bucket. Charities are able to claim these repayments on small donations of £20 or less, up to an annual cap. However, as identified on a survey by NCVO, small charities in particular are struggling to make use of the scheme due to complex access requirements which was reflected in the scheme's usage statistics: only 29% of the number of charities projected to claim in 2014/15 did so (ref: NCVO Briefing).
A charity's annual claim under GASDS is capped by reference to its annual claim under Gift Aid (the “matching rule”). In addition, a charity that is connected with one or more other charities has to share the annual £8,000 main allowance.
Finally, the scheme allows a charity to make an additional claim in respect of donations it has raised as part of its charitable activities in a community building such as a village hall, town hall or place of worship. The aim of these rules is to allow charities operating in a similar way but structured differently to have the same entitlement to top-up payments. For example, a charity may have several branches but registered as one charity or, alternatively, another charity may have the same structure but each branch may be registered as a separate charity.
For further information see Parliament Explanatory Notes
