Hi all,
I spoke to the Charities Unit at the UK Tax Authorities today for an update on our application for Gift Aid. We wrote to them on 23rd November applying for Gift Aid status and they previously said they had a backlog of 6-8 weeks' post to work through so we should expect an answer in approximately mid January.
Unfortunately they are now working on mid-October post, meaning the backlog has risen to 10 weeks and we can now expect an answer around 10th February.
On a positive note they have confirmed that we can ask people to sign the Gift Aid declaration now, notwithstanding that we haven't received a response, and we will be able to reclaim tax on these donations as soon as we are approved without having to approach the donors again.
I'll keep everyone informed.
Regards,
Andrew Turvey Secretary Wiki UK Limited Wiki UK Limited is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No. 6741827. The Registered Office is at 23 Cartwright Way, Nottingham, NG9 1RL.
Information contained in this email may be confidential. If you are not the intended recipient please notify the sender immediately and delete this email from your system. Unauthorised copying, forwarding or other use of any confidential information in this email may result in legal action.
----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Andrew Turvey raturvey@yahoo.co.uk To: wikimediauk-l@lists.wikimedia.org Cc: WMUK board@wikimedia.org.uk Sent: Friday, 5 December, 2008 22:23:10 Subject: Gift Aid - an update
Hi all,
Just to keep you up to date regarding Gift Aid. I spoke to the HMRC Charities Unit today and asked them when we should expect a response. They said they are currently taking between 6-8 weeks so we should expect to hear around mid January.
As we are not registered with the Charity Commission their initial response may ask for more information to support out status as a charity; however, I'll keep everyone informed when we hear.
Regards,
Andrew Turvey Company Secretary Wiki UK Limited
Wiki UK Limited is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No. 6741827. The Registered Office is at 23 Cartwright Way, Nottingham, NG9 1RL.
Information contained in this email may be confidential. If you are not the intended recipient please notify the sender immediately and delete this email from your system. Unauthorised copying, forwarding or other use of any confidential information in this email may result in legal action.
Any progress on accepting direct debits?
A
2009/1/2 Andrew Turvey raturvey@yahoo.co.uk:
Hi all,
I spoke to the Charities Unit at the UK Tax Authorities today for an update on our application for Gift Aid. We wrote to them on 23rd November applying for Gift Aid status and they previously said they had a backlog of 6-8 weeks' post to work through so we should expect an answer in approximately mid January.
Unfortunately they are now working on mid-October post, meaning the backlog has risen to 10 weeks and we can now expect an answer around 10th February.
On a positive note they have confirmed that we can ask people to sign the Gift Aid declaration now, notwithstanding that we haven't received a response, and we will be able to reclaim tax on these donations as soon as we are approved without having to approach the donors again.
I'll keep everyone informed.
Regards,
Andrew Turvey Secretary Wiki UK Limited Wiki UK Limited is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No. 6741827. The Registered Office is at 23 Cartwright Way, Nottingham, NG9 1RL.
Information contained in this email may be confidential. If you are not the intended recipient please notify the sender immediately and delete this email from your system. Unauthorised copying, forwarding or other use of any confidential information in this email may result in legal action.
----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Andrew Turvey raturvey@yahoo.co.uk To: wikimediauk-l@lists.wikimedia.org Cc: WMUK board@wikimedia.org.uk Sent: Friday, 5 December, 2008 22:23:10 Subject: Gift Aid - an update
Hi all,
Just to keep you up to date regarding Gift Aid. I spoke to the HMRC Charities Unit today and asked them when we should expect a response. They said they are currently taking between 6-8 weeks so we should expect to hear around mid January.
As we are not registered with the Charity Commission their initial response may ask for more information to support out status as a charity; however, I'll keep everyone informed when we hear.
Regards,
Andrew Turvey Company Secretary Wiki UK Limited
Wiki UK Limited is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No. 6741827. The Registered Office is at 23 Cartwright Way, Nottingham, NG9 1RL.
Information contained in this email may be confidential. If you are not the intended recipient please notify the sender immediately and delete this email from your system. Unauthorised copying, forwarding or other use of any confidential information in this email may result in legal action.
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l
On Jan 2, 4:22 pm, "Andrew Cates" And...@soschildren.org wrote:
Any progress on accepting direct debits?
We will be able to accept standig orders as soon as the bank account is finalised which should be soon after Foundation approval next Sunday.
I think the Board decided against direct debits as they were too expensive, but I can't find the decision at the moment - cfp could you confirm?
We're also looking into paypal which could be promising.
Hope this helps,
Andrew
Paypal will always be more expensive than direct bank transfers, even with the charitable discount, so I'd certainly recommend that those looking to donate to us who have the facility to make us direct bank transfers should avoid paypal.
Direct debits certainly aren't free, though the majority of the costs are set-up and annual ones, rather than proportional to the level of donations, so once we're larger it will be relatively cheaper. However it's by the by at the moment since the Co-Op require you to have had an account with them for a year before they'll let you set-up direct debits (out of other people's accounts).
Tom
2009/1/2 AndrewRT raturvey@yahoo.co.uk:
On Jan 2, 4:22 pm, "Andrew Cates" And...@soschildren.org wrote:
Any progress on accepting direct debits?
We will be able to accept standig orders as soon as the bank account is finalised which should be soon after Foundation approval next Sunday.
I think the Board decided against direct debits as they were too expensive, but I can't find the decision at the moment - cfp could you confirm?
We're also looking into paypal which could be promising.
Hope this helps,
Andrew
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l
Direct debits certainly aren't free, though the majority of the costs are set-up and annual ones, rather than proportional to the level of donations, so once we're larger it will be relatively cheaper. However it's by the by at the moment since the Co-Op require you to have had an account with them for a year before they'll let you set-up direct debits (out of other people's accounts).
And other banks have similar rules, I believe. You need to prove you are trustworthy before you can start taking money out of people's accounts.
At 13:22 -0500 3/1/09, Thomas Dalton wrote:
Direct debits certainly aren't free, though the majority of the costs are set-up and annual ones, rather than proportional to the level of donations, so once we're larger it will be relatively cheaper. However it's by the by at the moment since the Co-Op require you to have had an account with them for a year before they'll let you set-up direct debits (out of other people's accounts).
And other banks have similar rules, I believe. You need to prove you are trustworthy before you can start taking money out of people's accounts.
Standing orders work well for regular giving and membership fees, since the amounts do not need to vary.
Gordo
Having been involved with PayPal subscriptions with the Open Rights Group, it's, quite frankly, a complete arse. Every time a PayPal user changes their card details, PayPal cancels all their ongoing subscriptions.
I'd quite strongly recommend ignoring PayPal (for *recurring* donations; feel free to solicit one-offs through them) and just stick with STOs, which are easy enough to set up with any UK bank.
My €0,02…
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