Gift Aid changed to 20% from 22% in the 2008 spring Budget.
In readiness for the Gift Aid rate change-over, Fisk Brett had already created a new ‘service pack' to update the ProgressCRM software with additional functionality for variable Gift Aid claims.
When the HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) announced last year (2007) that there would be a change to 20%, and then suggested in the March 2008 budget that charities would still get 22%, there was a lot of confusion. Many charities thought that it was ‘business as usual'. But in reality, the tax rate had indeed changed to 20%. Charities were now expected to submit Gift Aid claims at 20% with the ‘shortfall' of 2% being added back by HMRC.
But that would have left fundraisers with a dimemma. New claims after 5th April would be at the new 20% rate, but what about all those donations that still qualified for the 22% rate, such as large numbers of cheques still be processed from before the change over day?
Designed for the current ProgressCRM Windows Version 5 and the former Version 4, Fisk Brett had anticipated what its customers would need to do. Downloaded to customers as part of their SMSU*, the pack adds an extra window to Progress that enables users to define date ranges and applicable percentage rate when they run their Gift Aid claims.
To ensure that customers would fully understand and manage the transitional arrangements, Fisk Brett then ran a special Gift Aid seminar, with a guest speaker from HM Revenue & Customs.
*Support, Maintenance and Software Update agreement
