Went to a local waterpark yesterday which is under new ownership. Cost of entry was £12/car, which I knew in advance. I was a bit surprised when I was asked if I would be willing to ‘do’ Gift Aid on the fee & didn’t think twice about agreeing; all charity is good right?

Now I’ve had a bit of time to reflect I’m a bit stumped on how they get away with this. Is it a tax fiddle? Looking at the government web site it seems the should only do this if there is a cheaper, non charitable fee on offer, which there isn’t.

Seen this in a few places, last one was Eden in Cornwall. Dont really understand it though but I am happy to do it if it makes the venue more money.

I’d imagine that the Eden Project is a charity, which is what gift aid is designed to support. A local waterpark however? sounds improbable, but who knows. Perhaps the new owner is a charity, and is using it as a source of income to support their work.

DISCLAIMER – I manage a charity which is heavily dependent on Gift Aid donations

Gift Aid is a funny one.

Taking the specific example of a visitor attraction (the only area I have experience of). The idea is that, by paying for admission, you can emulate making a charitable donation. Effectively, could get tax relief on your “donation” (admission charge) which you then pass on to the charity.

So for example, if you pay 25% income tax and spend £10 on an admission ticket, the charity can claim back £2.50 from HMRC.

The whole thing is muddied by the weird HMRC rules.

They stipulate that in order to claim Gift Aid relief, the charity must either (a) offer the Gift Aiding customer something which is not offered to other customers (typically free admission for a year) or (b) charge more than for a non-Gift Aided ticket (that’s right, charge MORE). No, I don’t understand it either.

This is why you will occasionally encounter places that charge more if you’re happy to gift aid (you pay extra for doing the attraction a favour), but more often you’re offered a year’s free readmission.

From the charity’s point of view, it can make a huge difference. We reckon to get 10% of our overall admissions income in the form of tax relief via gift aid. So please do it if you can. (If it helps, the information collected is only held in case of HMRC audit).

I get asked if I visit paying exhibitions in some of the London museums, and I’ll happily contribute.

I’m more than happy to do it for a year’s free readmission (which I probably won’t use), less so if I have to pay for the privilege. I appreciate to some extent that’s down to the silly HMRC rules (I think I understand the logic behind them, but they could just be a bit more reasonable).

I really don’t like this, when your in a que into a venue to me it feels a bit black maily as (to me anyway, I feel a guilty if I don’t do it) with people directly behind me.

The first time I had it I paid the extra after that I now don’t as most of the places I’ve been too that use it are already charging a decent amount just to get in. And I’ll always get food drink etc while I’m in the venue which in general have a decent markup on so they get more out of me anyway than just entry.

An while we are on about charities (sorry OP) if there so concerned about the thing they support. Why do the people at the top take 6 figure sums out of it as pay? EG if there THAT concerned how about a taking £30K a year so the other £70K can go to the people /thing they are trying to help.
Don’t get me started on Celebs persuading people to give they really boil my piss.

Once again sorry OP 🙂

Quite a few places I’ve visited charge as below:

Gift Aided Donation [G.A.D]
Adult G.A.D – £9.90
Over 60s G.A.D. – £8.80
Family G.A.D. – £26.40
Child G.A.D – £4.95

None Gift Aided Price [N.G.A.P]
Adult N.G.A.P – £9.00
Over 60s N.G.A.P. – £8.00
Child N.G.A.P – £4.50
Family N.G.A.P. – £24.00

So its cheaper to get in if you don’t gift aid – surly that’s the wrong way round?

It’s HMRC rules – you have to pay at least 10% more for an entry fee to be eligible for gift aid (yes, as discussed above it’s stupid – the point appears to be that there has to be some element of “gift”).

An while we are on about charities (sorry OP) if there so concerned about the thing they support. Why do the people at the top take 6 figure sums out of it as pay?

There are other threads available on here where this ‘issue’ has been explored. To death.

I really don’t like this, when your in a que into a venue to me it feels a bit black maily as (to me anyway, I feel a guilty if I don’t do it) with people directly behind me.

Just tell them you’re not a UK taxpayer so you can’t.

Or if you want to sound really virtuous announce loudly that you’ve already gift-aided up to the value of your UK tax for the year so you can’t.

badllama – Member

I really don’t like this, when your in a que into a venue to me it feels a bit black maily as (to me anyway, I feel a guilty if I don’t do it) with people directly behind me.

I really don’t like this, when your in a que into a venue to me it feels a bit black maily as (to me anyway, I feel a guilty if I don’t do it) with people directly behind me.

my (quite eccentric) friend once listed 5 things which were more important than a privatly owned castle to recieve gift aid; this included schools & winterfuel allowances iirc. The women on the desk of the castle was really shitty about it.

EDIT to be fair she was shitty before his, slightly shitty, response.

The whole area of what makes any organisation worthy of charitable status is very subjective. One person’s “amazing place of historic interest which MUST be saved for the nation” is another person’s “rich toff’s home”. Along with everyone, I find myself thinking “a charity? really?” at a lot of places.

I also think it’s mean to charge the visitor extra for Gift Aid, especially as there’s a more generous alternative. We simply charge the same for admission but offer free readmission for 12 months, as do most of the places round here which are run by charities.

As for the “they get loads of money out of me and the director makes a 6-figure sum” argument… that may (or may not) be true from some of the larger charities, but there are plenty of smaller ones where the staff are either volunteers or pretty low-paid – certainly nobody even earning as much as the UK average wage. For those of us in that situation, the money raised through Gift Aid can literally make the difference between keeping the lights on and having to close the place. It’s a pretty bleak financial landscape out there at the moment in the “not for profit” sector.

Sorry, I don’t mean to sound defensive and I appreciate and agree with a lot of what’s said above. There are certainly some charities with huge reserves (all available in the public domain, incidentally, via the Charity Commission’s website). But as with cyclists, drivers or any other group one might like to stereotype, there’s actually a large range of different situations and for some of us Gift Aid is a lifeline.