You will all be familiar with being asked to gift aid an entrance fee to a zoo or to gift aid your sponsorship to a colleague doing a 10k run for charity.  By gift aiding your contribution or entrance fee, the charity is then able to claim back the basic rate of tax applying to the gift as well as a small supplement available to compensate charities for the reduction in the basic rate of tax to 20% until 5 April 2011.

Did you know that you could also gift your handbag or record collection to a charity as well and claim to make the gift under a similar scheme called the Retail Gift Aid Scheme, meaning you can also make a claim for higher rate tax relief on the donation via your tax return?

The scheme means that the charity can also claim a tax credit on the amount it receives for selling your unwanted goods and can bring in valuable additional income to that charity.        

Ask your charity shop about this relief when you are next making a donation and make sure neither you nor the charity misses out.                   

Posted on 25 Jan 2010