Gift Aid

The Gift Aid Scheme

The Gift Aid Scheme is a simple way for taxpayers to increase their donations to the church at no extra cost to themselves. When you sign a Gift Aid Declaration to the church, which is a charitable institution, HM Revenue and Customs will refund the tax on all recorded donations that you make to the Church. In broad terms this adds approximately 25% to the value of your donation to the church. All charities in the country rely on this simple, 'painless' method of increasing their revenue.

Our parish Gift Aid Scheme has been up and running for many years and the clergy and the organisers thank most sincerely all those who have been able to participate in it. Donations not only help with the upkeep of the Parish, but contribute also to the preservation of Catholic education for our children. As you will know, Catholic parishes provide financial help with the maintenance of their own school buildings. In our case, they include those at St. Mary's Catholic Technology College, Leyland as well as our own Primary School.

UPDATED INFORMATION ON OFFERTORY DONATIONS & GIFT AID

There are a number of ways you can make your donations to the church:

Standing Order paid directly to the parish bank account, either, monthly, quarterly or annually.

Planned Giving Envelopes containing cheque (Payable to: St Mary’s Euxton) or cash placed into the offertory collection.

Loose cash or change given at the offertory collection

If you are a UK taxpayer the church can benefit (at no extra cost to yourself) if you “Gift Aid” your donations.

The Gift Aid scheme works as follows:

You must pay sufficient tax to cover the tax refund on your donations.

For Example if you donate £100 per year, we claim an additional £25 from the Inland Revenue as a tax refund. As long as you have paid £25 in income tax, the tax claim is valid.

Your consent must be given in order for us to reclaim the tax on your donations. This is done by completing a “Gift Aid Declaration”; the details required are name & Address in full and including Postcode, a signature and the date. The declaration has no expiry date, but can be cancelled in writing at any time.

Donations are recorded and totalled at the end of the tax year, to support the claim to the Inland Revenue.

Please note the “Gift Aid Declaration” must contain details of one taxpayer only. The Inland Revenue does not allow them to be completed in joint names. For tax purposes a husband and wife are treated separately.

Donations are recorded either from the bank statements if you give to the church by Standing Order OR by using planned giving envelopes; a yearly supply is given out towards the end of March in time for the start of the tax year. The amount given is simply recorded each week against the number on the envelope, only at the end of the tax year are the totals matched to Gift Aid Declarations, to claim the tax refund. This ensures all donations are kept as confidential possible.

If you use standing order for your donations a set of envelopes can also be provided, these can be placed empty each week into the offertory, (if you wish) to avoid any embarrassment during the collection. The special collection envelopes including Christmas & Easter can then be used for your donations for these second collections to maximise the tax refund.

If you have do not already gift aided your donations, please complete a “Gift Aid Declaration”, available from the back of the church and return to the presbytery as soon as possible.

Standing Order forms are also available in church, please complete the form and return to the presbytery, we will then complete the parish bank details and forward to the bank on your behalf.

Should you wish to use the planned giving envelopes for your offertory donations, where these are not Gift aided, please complete your name & Address details on an envelope request form.

Any queries can be directed via Fr Gerry at the presbytery or Nick Fish on 07973 134933.