Gift Aid

What does ‘Gift Aid donation’ mean?

Gift Aid is a scheme from HM Revenue & Customs that allows us to reclaim an extra 25% on your donations made during the past 4 years, as well as on all future donations, without costing you a penny. This means that for every £1 you donate to the RNLI, the charity gets an extra 25p.

It may not sound like a lot, but in 2021 alone, the RNLI reclaimed around £6.2 million on donations from kind people who ticked the Gift Aid box. That’s enough to train and equip more than 1300 lifeboat crew members.

Who is eligible?

To be eligible for claiming Gift Aid on charity donations, you must be a UK taxpayer and pay an amount of income and/or capital gains tax - at least equal to the tax that all charities and Community Amateur Sports Clubs will reclaim in the tax year of your donation. This also applies if you pay tax on your savings, pension plan or investment income but taxes such as VAT and Council Tax do not qualify. If you pay less Income Tax and/or Capital Gains Tax than the amount of Gift Aid claimed on your donations in the tax year, you’ll be responsible for paying any difference.

Are you a higher rate taxpayer?

There is an extra benefit for higher rate taxpayers as you are able to reclaim tax on the amount you have donated. We, as a charity, can claim the basic rate of tax on the value of your gift, and you can reclaim the difference between higher rate (40%) and basic rate tax (20%).

For example, if you give £100 to the RNLI, we can reclaim Gift Aid of £25 making your total gross donation £125. Being a higher rate taxpayer, you can reclaim a further 20% on the gross donation (the difference between the two tax bands), which in this example, is £25. This means your £125 gift to the RNLI would have only cost you £75.

How can I Gift Aid?

All we need from you is a single Gift Aid declaration, which will cover your future donations and also donations you have made for the past 4 years. To make your declaration, you can either:

• contact our Supporter Experience Team between 8am and 6pm, Monday-Friday on 0300 300 9990
• complete it through our online donation form
• download the RNLI Gift Aid donation form (PDF 115KB), complete it and send it back free to: FREEPOST RNLI

Please remember to inform us if you wish to cancel the declaration, change your name or home address, or no longer pay sufficient tax on your income and/or capital gains tax. You can either complete our online enquiry form or call us on 0300 300 9990.