Fundraising policies

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Gift Aid

BHF storeWe want to see simplifications to the Gift Aid scheme that allow us to make the most of your generous donations.

The Gift Aid scheme allows charities like us to get the tax back on donations when the people donating are UK taxpayers. This is a really important source of income for our work to tackle heart disease.

Gift Aid was worth £10.2m to our lifesaving work between April 2011 and April 2012.

We are calling for a number of measures to make it easier for people to add Gift Aid to their donations and to make the scheme simpler for us to run.

We want to see:

  • measures to make it simpler for people to add Gift Aid to the items they donate to our shops
  • an 'opt-out’ system which assumes that people are taxpayers unless they say they are not
  • changes that allow higher-rate taxpayers to donate all their tax at the time of making a donation

  • the government investing in a public awareness campaign to help everyone understand and use the Gift Aid scheme.

These changes would help us make the most of the generous donations we receive, and mean we can put more money towards our vital work.

For further information download our policy statement or email us at policy@bhf.org.uk.