What is Gift Aid?

Gift Aid is a government scheme available to charities and of course all churches. It means  we can claim extra money from the tax man on any donations you make to the parish.

The parish can claim an extra 25p for every £1 you donate as long as you've paid at least the basic rate of tax & make the donation from your own funds with no expense to yourself.  it means that if your give £1 a week, we get £1.25, over the year that is an extra £13. Likewise if you give £5 a week , we get £6.25, that's an extra £65 a year. Belive me it all adds up. As they used to say "look after the pennies & the poundsa look after themselves.

 Most of our second collections are assigned to our building fund & helps directly with the maintenance & improvement to our churches. Refurbishment of church halls, , kitchen, toilets. Decorating & refurbishing our churches. New windows & carpets. Bringing electrics up to standard & certainly not last a new ceiling. The list just goes on & on.  The ongoing rising expense of keeping our churches up to standard is immense & we desperately need any help you can give. Last year we managed to claim back £19k which it very welcome & a very big thank you to all our existing donors. Unfortunately it is only a drop in the ocean when compared to our ongoing expenses. As every household knows & especially the ladies that do the weekly shop the prices over the last few years have gone through the roof & the parish with 4 churches to maintain is no exception.

To qualify for Gift Aid:

·         you need to be a UK taxpayer, whether on your earnings or savings or pensions..

·         you need to have paid or expect to pay enough income/capital gains tax in the tax year to cover all the Gift Aid donations you made to the church that year.

·         you need to make a Gift Aid declaration.

All you need to do is complete a Gift Aid Declaration.

You can do this by:

·         Ticking the Gift Aid box on a one off envelope when you donate

·         Completing our online Gift-Aid declaration on the parish website  https://www.stnewmanparish.org  click on online payments & donation, Gift-Aid form. This is our preferred method.

·         Complete a hand written Gift Aid declaration Available at the back of church.

·         In order to process your donations we can issue you with a box of numbered envelopes for the 1^st & 2^nd Collections. You can set up a standing order which is our preferred method as everything is processed automatically. Or by using the Tap & Go machine at the back of church.

Once completed, please remember to let us know of any changes to your tax status, including changes to your name and address, so we can ensure that your donations are processed correctly. Your declaration is valid until you cancel it, which you can do at any time.

If you stop paying tax.

You can cancel the declaration at any time by informing the parish office or the Gift Aid organiser.

If you’re a pensioner.

If your income is from the state pension alone is unlikely to qualify as you’d need to earn above the personal allowance threshold to pay income tax.

Paul Waddell is our Gift Aid Organiser & can be contacted via the parish office to answer any questions you may have or to help you make a Gift-Aid declaration.

Download a Gift-Aid Declaration