How do I record and claim GASDS within ExpensePlus?

What is GASDS?

GASDS stands for Gift Aid Small Donation Scheme.

GASDS enables you to claim an additional 25% from HMRC on cash and contactless card donations.

This scheme has limits and restrictions, so do read this blog article for more information before processing and claiming GASDS within ExpensePlus.

How do I record donations that are eligible for GASDS?

Cash donations that are eligible for GASDS are often recorded through the bank deposit screen.

HMRC requires that the following information for each collection is recorded:

total cash donations collected
date of the collection
date it was paid into a bank account

When banking more than one cash collection or offering at the same time (which you are allowed to do), you should aggregate all eligible GASDS donations together for each collection.

We'd recommend you do this within ExpensePlus by recording each collection as a separate line within the GASDS section of the Bank Deposit screen, using the description field to record the details and date of each collection (see below).

Note: If you are registered for the GASDS Community Building Scheme (rather than the regular GASDS scheme), when entering GASDS donations you will also need to select the 'community building' the GASDS income relates to.

GASDS cash donations can also be recorded via the 'mixed income' transaction type on the bank matching screen, via the petty cash screen (if the money is put into petty cash), or by editing already reconciled income transactions as appropriate.

You will need to keep records of any contactless card donations that are being claimed under the GASDS scheme.

When recording offerings and collections on the bank deposit screen, any donations that are not named but not eligible for GASDS should be recorded within the 'Other Income' section of the income screen.

Note: there are additional reporting requirements for collections in community buildings, which include the need to record:

the address of the place you collected the donations (including postcode)
the type of event
the number of events you held
an estimate of how many people were at the event
when you collected the donations

See the HMRC website for more details and guidance on this.

How do I view GASDS donations?

In donation reports, you will find the GASDS Donations Report. Here you can view all your GASDS donations per fund, and select whether to exclude non-eligible transactions.

Note: If you are registered for the GASDS Community Building Scheme (rather than the regular GASDS scheme) GASDS donations will be shown per community building. An additional filter at the top of this report enables you to select the community building.

How do I claim GASDS?

On the Gift Aid screen within ExpensePlus, you can view the total GASDS donations received within a tax year and create GASDS claims.

What about the £8,000 GASDS Donation limit per tax year?

Under the HMRC rules, only £8,000 worth of GASDS Donations can be claimed per tax year (£2,000 worth of Gift Aid).

ExpensePlus will automatically prevent you from overclaiming. GASDS donations above the limit that have been excluded will be indicated within the GASDS Donation report within ExpensePlus.

Important: ExpensePlus doesn't know about GASDS claims submitted from outside ExpensePlus, so if you are submitting GASDS claims in addition to the ones being generated through ExpensePlus OR you have already claimed GASDS in the current tax year prior to switching to ExpensePlus, then you will need to keep track of GASDS that have been claimed to ensure you don't exceed the £8,000 limit

Note: If you are registered for the GASDS Community Building Scheme (rather than the regular GASDS scheme) the £8,000 limit is also enforced. But it applies per community building as per the HMRC rules.

For all of the latest GASDS rules, check out the HMRC website.

To better understand the Gift Aid module, please view the module overview video here.