There has been some helpful clarification from HMRC on how to deal with those folk who aren’t Gift Aid donors and are storing up their regular giving envelopes for when they next return to church.
For example, if a regular cash donor put £200 cash in an envelope and marked it as 10 weeks of £20 weekly donations for the occasions on which that person had been unable to make a regular cash offering in church.
When this was raised with HMRC, they responded:
‘In respect of [the Scheme], guidance on the eligibility for donations for inclusion … is clear in stating that claims can only be made on cash donations of £30 or fess; and contactless card donations of £30 or less collected on or after 6 April 2019. The decision over what constitutes an eligible donation is one for the church/charity to make for themselves, rather than for HMRC, but the conditions for something to be considered a “small donation” are clearly set out in legislation. Where it is the case, for example, of separate donations being given in a single envelope, then if the church/charity official is happy these are clearly separate “small donations” (and clearly stated as such) then they will be eligible for GASDS, as is the case where separate envelopes are used’.