The Small Charitable Donations Bill passed its third reading in the House of Commons on 26 November 2012 with amendments. The Bill will legislate the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme (GASDS) which was announced at Budget 2011 and will be implemented from 6 April 2013.

The GASDS will enable eligible charities and Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASC) to claim Gift Aid style top-up payments on small cash donations without requiring the donor to provide a Gift Aid declaration.

Government amendments to the Bill since its introduction include:

• The need for organisations to demonstrate a two-year track record of compliance under Gift Aid before becoming eligible to make claims under the new scheme. The government had originally set this qualifying period at three years.
• The reduction of the matching ratio to 10:1 which will enable charities and CASCs to make a claim in respect of £10 of top-up income under GASDS for every £1 donation claimed under Gift Aid. The ratio was originally set at 2:1.

A revised Impact Assessment has now been published which takes into account the modifications to the Bill.

Further details are available from HMRC