Gift aim claims must be made online from 1 October

From Monday 1 October the old paper form for claiming gift aid will be redundant and charities will have to claim gift aid via the Charities Online portal. Those without access to the internet will have to claim using a new form – ChR1.

Almost 15,000 more charities have registered to use Charities Online to claim gift aid since HMRC sent out reminder letters five weeks ago, but most charities have still not registered.

Letters were sent to 126,000 charities and community amateur sports clubs that have claimed gift aid in the last three years. Approximately 87,000 charities claim gift aid each year, according to HMRC.

As of Monday 23 September HMRC said that 33,492 charities had registered to use the system – up from the 19,000 that had signed up in August before HMRC sent out reminders.

As most charities make one gift aid claim per year HMRC expects charities to register for Charities Online when they need to.