The government has also established a working group on Gift Aid promotion and the related declaration, jointly chaired by the Treasury and HMRC. The group, which includes behavioural insights experts and professional fundraisers, will work with the government to promote Gift Aid generally and to amend the model Gift Aid declaration to make it more user-friendly. It will also review plans to produce a single declaration to apply to all donations made via a non-charity intermediary.

The wording of the Gift Aid declaration will also be reviewed to improve take-up while protecting donors, charities and the Exchequer against claims made in error. It is clear that any changes made to the Gift Aid declaration should be careful to increase donors’ understanding that they must have paid tax in order to use Gift Aid.

The consultation, which ran from 3 July 2013 to 20 September 2013, set out proposals for new promotional materials on Gift Aid, changes to the declaration, and a new role for digital intermediaries in administering Gift Aid with a view to reducing the number of occasions on which donors need to provide their details.

Respondents were broadly positive about changes to simplify, publicise and increase the take-up to Gift Aid.

Following consultation, the government admitted that there is scope to increase Gift Aid take-up by making it easier for eligible donors to claim Gift Aid on their donations by enabling intermediaries to play a greater role in the process.

Finance Bill 2015 will include legislation to enable intermediaries to take a greater role in the Gift Aid process, including a role in administering Gift Aid directly, and in collecting and passing on Gift Aid declarations to charities (or other intermediaries) to make claims.

The government also wants to encourage donors to use Gift Aid on more eligible donations and encourage smaller charities to register for the reliefs they are entitled to. This will include targeted outreach work, a simpler joint HMRC/Charities Commission application process and improving understanding of donor behaviour.

On the universal Gift Aid declaration database, the government has indicated that while there are no current plans to introduce such a database, the information provided by those responding to the consultation will be of use in supporting longer-term thinking about the future of Gift Aid administration.

The consultation response and outcome is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/303094/PU1618_Gift_Aid_and_digital_giving_consultation_response.pdf